Avatar: The Last Airbender, Tale of the Earth
by DJ Paynter
Summary: A young Earthbending boy discovers a startling secret and must travel with both friends and enemies, fighting off a war and racing to the North Pole before the Fire Nation can get thier hands on a treasure that could bring down the entire Earth Kingdom..
1. The Journey of One Thousand Stones

**Chapter One: The Journey of One Thousand Stones**

"Omashu, the lovely city of the southern Earth Kingdom. Beautiful sights and wonderful attractions abound, it's the perfect place to stop and smell the roses… at least it would be if I wasn't running late!" A young teenage boy shouted as he tore through the city as fast as he could go. "Damn, why do I have to be late on today of all days!?" He panted.

The boy was about average height, with messy dark brown hair, wearing loose fitting earth-tone tunic and pants. He wasn't out of the ordinary, however he was certainly earning strange looks from people as he ran past, mostly from the hurry he seemed to be in. "Damn! Damn! Damn!" He cursed, looking at the sun to determine the time. "King Bumi's gonna by soooo pissed!"

"Ran!" The boy nearly fell over as he heard his name being called. "Ran my boy, get over here!" an old-looking man in a green tunic called out as he gestured for the boy to come over.

"Yeah, what's up old man?" Ran bounced from one foot to the other, still clearly in a hurry.

"Ran Dejie… why are you in such a hurry?" The old man cocked an eyebrow as he watched the boy.

"Well, ya see, I gotta get to King Bumi's place, I'm going into the services today and he asked to see me before I left but I'm kinda in a hurry, so if I could just…"

"The services! How great it is to see young people wanting to help their country fight the Fire Nation, maybe if we all work hard, this war can be over in your lifetime. The Avatar's returned so…"

"But…"

"Ah, to be young, spry and in a hurry." The old man reminisced mentally.

"I really gotta go!" Ran shouted, breaking the old man's concentration. "Sorry old man, talk to ya later!" He shouted as he rushed off again. "Damn, if I don't get there soon, I'm gonna be late to my departure too! AH! Why me!?"

---------------------------

"King Bumi, a visitor for you." An Earth Kingdom guard saluted in a formal manner as he escorted Ran into the King's throne room. The boy was panting, his hands on his knees as he was introduced to the king. King Bumi was one of the world's greatest Earthbenders, and like a grandfather figure to Ran, seeing to it that he was taken care of after his parents had died when he was young.

He supposed it was good fortune that brought him to the King's attention the day he was orphaned, when of the few bits he'd ever had. Ran was notorious throughout Omashu, not only for being a leader of the loveable delinquents, the Rock Rock Band, but for being one of the most unlucky people most had ever met. Being late today was a prime example of the many small misfortunes which had befouled him, luckily he had Bumi to bail him out when things got too bad. "Hiya Bumi." Ran grinned to the king, who was wearing an overly ornate purple Earth Kingdom outfit.

"Hello Ran, I've asked you here before you head off on your duties for something very important." The old king snorted. "Do you…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you…"

"Yeah, yeah?"

"Like my outfit?"

Ran nearly fell over. "THAT'S WHAT YOU ASKED ME HERE FOR!?" He snapped to the much older man.

"Well, not the _only_ thing." He snorted again. "But I feel it's important for young people today to have a sense of fashion.

"It's lovely…" Ran's eye twitched. "Can I go now? I'm gonna be late!"

"Now, now, no need to rush." The King walked over to his throne seat, which had two objects placed on it. "Remember what I taught you about the neutral Jing."

"Yeah, yeah, watching and waiting, can we hurry this up?" Ran resumed his stance of bouncing from one foot to the next. In addition to being a parental figure, Bumi had also taken himself to be the boy's instructor in the ways of Earthbending.

"Of fine, here you are." He handed Ran the two objects. One was an ornately designed flute, the other was a large knife-like weapon with a broad blade, about three and a half feet long. "These belonged to your parents, the flute was your mothers' and the Dadao belonged to your father. I figured you should have their mementos before going out to fight in the war."

Bumi's normal jovial-looking eyes became suddenly serious. "The Dadao's sheathe is a special gift from me." He chuckled as he pointed to the brown sheathe on the large knife. It had an outlined square in a circle in a bigger square, the symbol for the Earth Kingdom. "As you travel through the four nations for the war, I want you to collect the symbols of these nations on your journey, as well as some talisman to prove you've been there. I feel it's important for young people to see the world while they still can."

He pointed to the Earth Kingdom symbol again. "I'll fill this in and give you your talisman when you return to me, as an Earthbending master." Bumi grinned and snorted.

Ran's eyes teared up as he accepted the gifts. "Thank you Bumi!" He hugged the old king tightly as he cried at the sentimentality of being given his new quest.

Bumi smiled and patted Ran on the back. "Don't worry about it, it's time to leave though, weren't you just complaining about being late?"

"Yeah! Thanks Bumi!" Ran grinned as he whipped the tears from his eyes and put the Dadao on his back and the flute in his back pocket as he began to exit the throne room.

"Don't be a stranger if you're ever around the kingdom! Maybe Flopsy and Mako can have a playdate!" The old king shouted.

Ran stopped in his tracks. "Oh yeah! I still have to say goodbye to Mako before I leave! Thanks Bumi!"

"No problem! You can't exactly take a Badgermole with you into a war!" Bumi chuckled in a mischievous way.

-------------------------------------

"Damn, I'm so late!" Ran sighed as he ran through the city again, this time headed for the outer walls. "Screw this, I'm taking the shortcut!" He dashed down the alleyway. "Where are they? Where are they?" he muttered to himself as he looked around.

"Bingo!" He shouted as he saw an empty stone cart in front of a stone ladder-like chute. "Thank you Omashu delivery system!" He grinned, jumping in the cart and giving a firm stomp, causing a rock to push out under the cart and send it rocketing down the chute.

"WHOOOHOOO!"

Ran piloted the cart down the chute, heading in the direction he wanted to, towards the outer walls. His eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he saw a sharp drop, which propelled the cart a bit too far due to the speed he was going at. "SHIIIIIIIT!" He crashed down, missing the chute and landing on a vegetable stand, owned by an older gentleman.

"AGH! MY CABBAGES! That's the second cart today!" The shopkeeper growled as he glared at Ran.

"Sorry old-timer! Put it on King Bumi's tab!" Ran grinned broadly as he dashed through the city on foot once again.

As soon as he had picked up some speed however, he ran into another group of three. "Hey! Watch it!" A sarcastic-looking kid about Ran's age shouted as he nearly toppled them over.

"Sorry about that. Kinda in a hurry." Ran rubbed the back of his head as he eyed the group over. Besides the dark-haired sarcastic boy, there was a pretty looking dark-haired girl, both wearing blue clothing that made them look like they had come from the water nation. The third was a short-looking old man, his hair and beard both looked like they were made from straw and he held a long, staff-like cane to support his hunched back.

"Well watch where you're going, young whippersnapper." The old man spoke, his voice sounded odd, more like a kid who was pretending to be an old man, far be it from Ran to criticize though.

"Terribly sorry about that, please forgive me sir, I must be going." Ran chuckled as he ran off.

"Well… that was odd." The female blinked as the three watched him speed away.

------------------------------

Ran's voice and actions calmed down as he neared the cave outside the city where he kept his pet Badgermole, Mako. "Sorry buddy, I've got to leave now…" He held out some of the vegetation and fruits that Badgermoles liked to eat as he fastened his new Dadao tighter to his back getting ready to leave.

Mako the Badgermole refused the food as he nuzzled his master's arm with his pink mole nose. He had brown fur with one white and two black stripes running down his backs and a white, mask-like patch on his face, like most ordinary Badgermoles. What made him different was that he had a rather large saddle with many pouches and some reigns for riding. Ran was skilled with using his friend for long distance travel in the vast Omashu plains. "Look, I'm sorry buddy, but I don't want to get you involved in a war. You stay here and take care of yourself, I promise I'll come back someday, hopefully this war will be over by then." He stared out the cave at the afternoon skyline thoughtfully before exiting, finally on his way to his squad.

"If you follow me, I'll be really mad!" He added as he ran out to the recognizance point for his military squad.

------------------------------

"Let's see…. My commanding officer is Commander Chyuu…" Ran looked at a piece of paper with a few characters on it. "And the meeting point is miles outside the city walls, odd Commanders don't usually call new soldiers out of the city right off the bat." He sighed as he neared the meeting point for his team.

His eyes turned wide and he froze as he saw someone in the distance, and they didn't look friendly. He immediately hid behind a rocky cliff. The figure walked past the cliff and Ran had to cover his own mouth from shouting in surprise, it was a Fire Nation solider!

"Hmmm, looks like we've got all the recruits here, except for one. This… Ran Dejie kid." The solider muttered from behind his white mask as he looked at a list that assumeably had the names of the new recruits on it. Ran swore under his breath as the first man was soon joined by another Fire Nation solider.

Ran uncovered his mouth, still not making a sound. 

"Hmm… lazy punk musta overslept." The second solider looked at the list and the name on it. Ran concentrated and punched into the ground with his Earthbending powers, causing a rock a few feet away to jump up about a foot and crash down a second later. "What was that!?" The solider picked up his staff-like weapon as they both headed over to the rock, their backs now facing the cliff, and Dejie.

"Perfect…" Ran whispered as he stood up, unsheathing his new Dadao. He gave a firm stomp, sending a large rock about chest level to him as he swung his giant knife, sending the rock hurtling towards the second solider. "That's for calling me lazy!" He shouted as the rock collided with the man's back, sending him crashing unconscious and bloody into the very boulder he was looking at.

"Why you…!" The first solider spun around, holding his weapon tightly after looking at his unconscious comrade.

"Bring it!" Ran swung his Dadao, meeting the blade of the Fire Nation soldier's spear head-on. As their weapons collided, the two growled both trying to push the other back. Ran gave another firm stomp, dislodging another rock right where the solider was standing, causing his stance to break and him to stumble forward. "Gotcha!" Ran shouted as he swung the giant knife into the man's chest, leaving a long and bloody, but not fatal gash.

The boy panted as he looked over the two fallen warriors. "Good thing I was late..." he gasped, "Or else I might've been captured with the rest of them. I've gotta find Commander Chyuu!" He ran off towards the meeting point again after realizing his good fortune.

--------------------------------------

Ran panted as he finally found the meeting point, a small and grassy clearing, shocked at what he saw there. The whole place was covered with at least fourteen Fire Nation soliders, along with a cart full of captured Earth Nation recruits. "Oh shit…" the boy muttered.

"You should've stayed home boy." A voice muttered behind him. Ran jumped and turned to see a large, muscular man in Earth Kingdom clothes specifically made for the military. The man tilted his domed hat towards Ran. "Now that you've seen this, I can't let you live."

Ran backed up, moving towards the cart. "C-Commander Chyuu…?" The boy gasped as he put two and two together. "Why are you working with the Fire Nation?!"

"Picking the winning team kid." Chyuu smirked. "If I hand over these kids and a few other useful tidbits and treasures about the Earth Kingdom, I'll be sitting pretty when the war's over."

"Bastard." Ran pulled his Dadao out of its sheathe, pointing it at the Earth Nation Commander.

"Careful with toys like that boy, you're liable to get yourself killed." Chyuu unsheathed his own broadsword, using it to slap away the Dadao. "Take the cart away to the southern cape to be picked up boys, I'll handle him alone." He ordered as the Fire Nation soliders left, eager to get out of the area so that their presence wouldn't be discovered so close to Omashu.

Ran swung his Dadao hard at the remaining commander, becoming frustrated as it was easily dodged. He kept swinging in a fury, each time being met with a bemused laugh as the attack was either dodged or blocked. "You've got potential boy, but no skill, you have yet to see the horrors of the real world."

"I don't care what you've seen or who you're aligned with! I'll kill you for capturing my Earth Kingdom brothers!"

Pathetic!" Chyuu swung his broadsword hard, knocking the Dadao out of Ran's hands. "You shouldn't make such strong claims Ran, you'll sound weak."

"Grrr… Earth Bullet!" Ran gave a firm stomp, punching a rock towards Chyuu as it popped up.

The commander crossed his arms, using a great Earthbending defense to have the rock crash and crumble harmlessly after it hit him. "You name your attacks, how quaint. You have your silly little names, I however have power!" Chyuu punched the ground, dislodging a much larger rock, spinning around and kicking it towards the young boy.

"Earth Shield!" Ran plunged both fists to the ground, raising a slab of rock to shield himself. From the attack, Chyuu's boulder collapsing into dusty as it met with the shield.

"Hmm… not bad I suppose." The commander mused as he watched the boy.

"If you think that's good, watch this! My special move, Earth Surfer!" He kicked at the base of the slab, causing it to fall over into a horizontal position on the ground. Ran hopped up onto the slab and kicked the ground behind him, causing him to rocket forward, using the slab as almost a surfboard as he used his Earthbending to keep the slab moving forward at a fast pace.

"Hmmm.. interesting, but foolish." Chyuu swung his broad sword ad Ran passed, leaving a bloody gash across the boy's chest.

Ran fell to the ground with a bloody whimper, writhing in pain at his new wound. "D-Damn you…" he gasped as he glared up at Chyuu, who was now standing over him.

"Time to bury the wounded." Chyuu sighed as he spread his arms out, palms down and clenched them softly. Ran suddenly felt himself sinking and eventually falling as a small chasm opened up underneath him.

"Shit!" Ran gasped as the rocks fell into the open fissure and everything turned black.

--------------------------

Ran whimpered to himself as he woke to a cool tongue running across his face. He looked up to see the familiar Badgermole face of Mako. He winced as he looked around, sitting up slightly, still covered in dirt from being buried alive. He saw what had happened clearly from his surroundings. The chasm where Chyuu had left him for dead was reopened by Mako's Earthbending powers and he had been dragged to where he was by his pet Badgermole.

"Never thought I'd be so happy to have you disobey me, buddy." Ran smiled softly and petted the snout of his pet. "That keen nose of yours sure comes in handy for tracking me down." He chuckled.

Ran's face suddenly became more serious as he looked down to his chest wound, which had been covered by dirt in the fissure. He quickly went to the saddle on Mako's back and got out his first aid kit, dressing his wound in haste. "Come on Mako, we're going to the Southern Earth cape." He climbed onto the Badgermole's back and into the saddle, grabbing his reigns tightly.

"Hyah! Hyah boy!" He pulled at the reigns, urging the Badgermole to run across the landscape quickly, using its claws and Earthbending prowess to move quickly out of the forest-like clearing and back to the rocky plains.

Watch out Traitor Chyuu! I'm coming for you and not leaving until I get my true Earth Kingdom brothers back!

-----------------------------------

Well there it is, the first chapter for the long awaited Avatar fic! I decided to put this up before the premerie of Book 3: Fire! If you have any Avatar OC's please don't hesitate to send them in, I desperately need some characters to make the story more interesting. Hope it's good, sorry if not. Please Review!

PS: I'll have info on Ran and other characters up on my profile soon!


	2. Fire and Earth

**Chapter 2: Fire and Earth**

Ran hopped off Mako's saddle upon arriving at the next town. He looked towards the west and saw setting sun, he had a bad feeling that the captured Earth Kingdom recruits would be taken away soon. He patted Mako on the nose, feeling over his own chest where the hastily bandaged wound from his battle with the former Commander Chyuu earlier that day.

"Stay here buddy, I'll call you if I need you." Dejie closed his eyes as he headed off into the town, asking around where the docks were.

"Excuse me ma'am but…." He cut himself off as he saw smoke rising from behind some of the buildings, the smoke of a Fire Nation warship. "Sorry to have bothered you." He ran off, leaving a very confused old woman in his wake.

Hang on guys, I won't let the Fire Nation have you!

----------------------------------------------

A man in black and red armor walked through the town, looking around and apparently lost. "Sometimes I hate that tea-sucking old geezer." The man sighed. "Because of him I missed the ship!"

The man wore his black hair in a knot at the top of his head, a standard custom for Fire Nation nobles. "I have to find a way out of here or I'm going to be in serious trouble unless I get back soon." The Fire Nation warrior sighed and placed his palm on his forehead. He lifted his other arm up, hefting a package with labels for tea on it over his back.

"Hmph, no matter, my first order of business should be getting a ride out of here." He looked around, quickly spotting the black smoke of one of his own high above the buildings. "Bingo." He smirked and began heading towards the smoke.

---------------------------------------

A dark-haired woman wearing a tattered Fire Nation uniform watched from a rocky cliff by the shore as a Fire Nation warship was quickly stocked, a strongly-built man wearing Earth Kingdom clothes apparently giving the orders. "Hmmm, well that's something you don't see everyday." She commented. "An Earth Kingdom man ordering around Fire Nation soliders, wonder what's going on."

Her eyes went to the caged cart of what appeared to be Earth Kingdom captives that was being wheeled into the ship by Fire Nation soliders riding komodo rhinos. "A spy maybe?" The woman chuckled as she watched them carefully, wondering what was going on but deciding not to get involved.

She looked to the edge of the shore that lead into the town and saw a very ticked-looking Earth Kingdom boy, a teenager looking about her own age, running towards the ship. "Hmmm, things are about to get interesting." She chuckled softly and leaned back against the cliff, preparing to enjoy a good show.

-----------------------------------

Ran stormed the rocky beach very boldly, spotting Chyuu and his troops immediately, seeing the cart of his Earth Kingdom brothers as well on the ramp to be loaded into the ship. He looked around and saw that no Fire Nation soliders had seen him just yet.

"Alright, here we go, Earth Bullet!" He stomped and picked up a boulder from the rocky beach, placing it in front of him quietly. (or as quietly as you can move a rock) He punched the rock hard and sent it hurtling into the ship's ramp, knocking the cage, komodo rhino, and a few Fire Nation soliders either onto the beach or into the water.

"Halt!" Two masked Fire Nation soliders standing besides someone Ran recognized to be Chyuu snapped around and headed for his position, punching the air and emitting flames to shoot out from the tips of their fists.

Ran waved his arm, shooting a layer of sand from the beach as a horizontal divider between the flames and himself. "Gonna have to do better than that, Fire Nation wimps!"

As the two soldiers stepped forward to attack again, Chyuu tapped them on the shoulders and pushed them back a few feet. "Still alive are you?"

"Surprised?" Ran smirked.

"You should have taken better care of your life, miracles don't happen every day, and I assure you it won't be happening again!" The former Earth Kingdom commander raised both palms, lifting a sand cloud much larger than Ran's from the beach, engulfing a large area between the boat and the town.

"Dang, he's powerful, I have to stay on my toes." He whipped some of the sand out of his face with Earthbending, only to find it come back into his face a few seconds later. The boy suddenly felt a pain in his shoulder as a rock the size of a baseball hit it. This was quickly followed by a rock three times that size that slammed hard into his abdomen, he coughed up blood as the wound on his chest opened again.

Gasping and wheezing, Ran doubled over in pain. "He's good, he must be bending a lot of this sand so that he can see and I can't. I'm gonna have to guess at where he is. Distance Bullet!" He punched into the ground, which caused a column of rock roughly the length and size of his arm to raise up some distance away.

A loud, high-pitched yelp meant that he had hit one of the stray Fire Nation soliders in a very uncomfortable place. "Oops, sorry dude, oh well, Fire Nation population control." He gave a small smirked and shrugged it off.

"Damn, in this sand I couldn't hit the broad side of a…" He grinned as he came up with an idea. "Triple shot, piercing bullet!" He punched the ground again, lifting another rock and kicking it, breaking it into three sharp rock-like spears which quickly rocketed through the sand.

Chyuu watched as the spears passed him, all at least a few feet away. "Damn kid, you have really bad aim." He kicked another rock where he saw Ran's shadow a few yards away clearly through the sand that was completely under his control.

Ran yelped as the rock hit him in the face, tipping him over on his back and leaving a trail of blood from his mouth. "Maybe…" he gasped. "Or maybe your sand cloud was blocking you from seeing what I was really aiming at." He grinned.

"What!?" Chyuu pushed his palms to the ground, dropping the cloud of sand that surrounded them. He saw all three stone spears lodged firmly in the hull of the Fire Nation warship, crumbling away and allowing water to flood in. "You brat! You sunk my ship!"

Ran sat up and gave a goofy chuckle and a small grin as he looked on the traitor. "You might want to get the rest of your boys out of there, I hear cowards sink."

"Earth Kingdom scum!" An unfamiliar voice called out from behind Ran. The boy just barely rolled out of the way as a large fireball hit the sand where he was seconds before. Ran looked at his assailant, who looked like a Fire Nation noble judging by his hairstyle and armor.

The man punched the air twice and kicked sharply with his foot, leaving tongues of flames shooting out from his appendages with each strike.

"Whoa, no how was your day Mr. Earth Kingdom scum? No what line of travel are you using Mr. Earth Kingdom scum?" Ran joked as he ducked out of the way of the fire blasts, leaving his hair singed from the close call. "Man, you Fire Nation guys are rude, and I don't even know you." He looked between his attacker and Chyuu, knowing he couldn't take on both a fire bender of this level and a former Earth Kingdom commander at the same time.

"My name is Bei Bo Rong, I feel that everyone deserves to know… the name of the man that will kill them!" He punched out another long shot of flame that was met by a wave of sand shield from Ran.

Chyuu unsheathed his broadsword and held it out in front of him, ready to attack Ran while he was distracted by the other man, only to be stopped by a wall of flame that rose up between Ran and the commander. Chyuu looked around, seeing that it didn't come from his men or from Bei, but from a newcomer, a dark-haired young woman in an old-looking Fire Nation Uniform.

"I got bored with just watching, so I decided to join the fun." The woman gave a sadistic smile as she walked up to Chyuu. "Since the runt there's got the other hothead, I suppose I'll take you." She struck an advanced Firebending stance.

The woman used two fingers on each hand to shoot precise and deadly shots of fire, jumping and kicking an identical steam of fire at Chyuu. The fearsome Earthbending commander struggled to get away, unable to dodge the last kick and using a wall of sand that was quickly pierced through by the small but powerful fire spear.

Chyuu fell onto his back, his chest singed and burned slightly by the attack. "W-Who the hell are you? You're supposed to be on our side!" He winced.

"Name's Kairi, and I'm on my own side." The woman smirked and pointed to herself.

Meanwhile, Ran barely dodged another fire blast that was aimed at him by the man called Bei. "Damn, this guy's good, and the environment isn't to my advantage, sandbending isn't my forte'."

"You really shouldn't announce your weaknesses to your opponent!" The Fire Nation man smirked and gave a powerful kick, shooting flames up from under Ran's chin, grazing the boy's face and leaving soft burn marks.

Ran clutched his stinging face with one hand and pulled out his Dadao with the other. "Bet you didn't expect this! Piercing bullet!" He swung the large knife at a rock, breaking it into a large stone spike which hurtled towards Bei.

"Hmm, a weapon which acts as a bending catalyst, interesting, but that changes little!" He thrusted both fists forward, creating a large and long stream of fire that melted the rock before it reached him. "The skill of the bender decides a battle, not the element which the bender wields, even fire can melt rock with a strong bender by its side." Bei dusted soot off himself.

"Or the skill of the warrior!" Ran charged through the dust remnants of the rock that created a small smokescreen to block Ran from his opponent's view. He swung his Dadao high and struck into the Fire Nation armor of the man, barely breaking the chest plate and leaving a small scratch on the torso on the man.

Bei growled and looked down at his now bare chest, clutching a fist on a large burn scar over his heart. "You Earth Kingdom brat!" The man exploded, screaming loudly and releasing a large blast of fire from his mouth, covering the area in scorch marks and forcing Ran backwards a few feet, skidding on his heels and panting.

"Fire Breath… but that's supposed to be an ability only the Dragon of the West is supposed to have…" Rei held the numerous burn marks on his shoulders and chest from the attack.

"There is much you don't understand…" Bei snarled.

Back at the ship, Kairi and Chyuu continued their skirmish, the Firebending woman seemingly holding off the commander with little difficulty. Not only was she holding off Chyuu, she was taking down any Fire Nation soldier that dare try to help their leader, bringing each of them down with a single large fire blast to their head. "You want to give up before you run out of men?" She shrugged. "I could let you run off, but that wouldn't be nearly as much fun." She smirked with a sarcastic tone.

Chyuu looked at his fallen soliders around him in horror and rage, raising his arms and converging many rocks above his head into one large clump of stone, which he hurtled at Kairi. The ebony-haired Firebender smirked and did several motions with two fingers, tracing them in the air before pointing them at the rock, shooting lightning from her fingertips and completely destroying the stone. The lightning kept going through and hitthe ship behind Chyuu, melting completely through the metal to the other side of the already half-sunken ship.

A Firebending soldier looked at the fourth hole in their ship in shock, and then at the bodies of the Fire Nation soldiers around Kairi. He walked over to Chyuu and whispered to the commander. "Sir, we need to cut our losses, forget the Earthbenders, we need to get to the North Pole and obtain the treasure of the ancient earth before our enemies discover what we're planning."

Kairi's eyes widened as she overheard the two talking. "Treasure of the ancient earth? You guys are after that thing!?"

"I'm surprised," Chyuu smirked smugly, enjoying the surprise he goaded out of the teenage woman. "Most Firebenders don't know about the treasure, nevertheless believe that it exists."

"Or know where it is." Kairi grinned. "But now, thanks to you, I do."

Their conversation was interrupted by a sharp high-pitched sound coming from the area where Ran and Bei were fighting. Kairi, Chyuu, and the soldiers all turned around to see Ran blowing sharply into his mother's flute, not caring which note he hit with it.

The sound was followed by the feeling of the earth shaking as a large beast hopped over the rocky beach cliff, landing between Bei and Ran, kicking up a lot of dirt and earth on Bei's side with its eartbending powers.

"Grrr… a Badgermole, I can't take that, the brat and the psycho Firebender lady." Bei growled. "I'll let you get away this time, Earthbending scum, but if I meet you again, I will kill you and bring your head to General Iroh." He ran off back towards the town, knowing when to not fight an unnecessary battle thanks to his training.

"Sir, we should get moving too." The Fire Nation soldier whispered as Chyuu and the remaining soldiers mounted the komodo rhinos and headed towards the town as well.

"Let's follow them Mako, hyah!" Ran started off to chase after them.

"Hold up kid!" Kairi's voice came out from behind him. "You look pretty banged up, and I doubt they would be as afraid of you without me around." She rubbed her shoulder joint while moving her arm around. "Besides, there's more important things to take care of right now, you came here to help your friends, right?" She pointed to the still caged recruits that had been in the cart since before the fight had started.

"Oh yeah, thanks lady." Ran grinned as he walked over to the cage, using a rock to smash open the lock and let the prisoner recruits step out.

"Name's Kairi." The woman snapped to Ran. "I don't believe I ever caught your name."

"Ran, Ran Dejie." The boy smirked. "I really appreciate your help back there."

"Don't get all mushy, I was just looking for a good fight, couldn't let you have all the fun." She shrugged. "You have the transportation I need, what do you say to going on a little trip?"

"Where to?"

"The North Pole of course." Kairi smirked. "The Fire Nation now knows that the treasure of the ancient earth is there and is sure to be going after it thanks to the commander, we need to get there first."

"The treasure of the ancient earth?" Ran cocked his head to the side.

"I'll explain on the way, say goodbye to your friends and let's go." The woman hopped up onto Mako's saddle, earning a small growl from the Badgermole.

Ran looked to one of the recruits, recognizing him as his friend from the Rock Rock gang in Omashu. "Please tell King Bumi what's going on here, he's sure to know what this treasure is and can do something about it, for now, even though she's Fire Nation, I feel compelled to go with her."

The boy nodded and patted Ran on the shoulder. "Alright Dejie, keep yourself safe man."

"Aww, come on, what trouble could I possibly get into?" He smirked as he climbed on top of Mako's saddle and whipped the reigns to make the Badgermole run off to the north.

---------------------------------------------

Bei sighed as he entered a crowded pub back in town, cursing himself for his failure to capture the Earth Kingdom boy attacking the Fire Nation ship back on the beach. "Now not only do I have to find a way back to General Iroh, but I have to also report my failure to him when I find him." He punched a wall, shaking it slightly and earning some strange looks from the patrons.

"Hmph, you should sit down, you're making a scene." A familiar voice called out to Bei from the table in the corner.

The Fire Nation man smirked as he walked over to the table and sat down, looking straight into the face of Commander Chyuu. "You're that Earth Kingdom man from the Fire Nation boat, I didn't attack you back there since you seemed to be commanding Firebenders, but I want some answers now." He glared.

"My name is Chyuu, I'm… a Fire Nation sympathetic, I'm going to help your country find something very important, and who might you be?"

"Name's Bei, but you can call me Bo." The Fire Nation man smirked.

"Well Bo, I saw your bending back there, you're strong, and up against someone like that Kairi lady, we're going to need all the strength we can get." Chyuu smirked nonchalantly.

Bo raised an eyebrow. "And why should I help you?"

"I heard your outburst, you belong to Iroh's men, word has it he and Prince Zuko are headed for the North Pole after the Avatar. By coincidence we're heading the same way to get what we're after, and I'm sure you'll have your shot at the Earthbending brat again along the way." The Commander smirked arrogantly. "It's in your best interest to join us." He extended his hand to the boy.

Bo thought for a moment. "I suppose I'll join you… for now." The boy shook the older man's hand. "What exactly are you after at the North Pole?"

"A very important treasure, the treasure of the ancient earth."

---------------------------------

"Treasure of the Ancient Earth?" Ran asked, holding Mako's reigns tightly as the Badgermole sped across the southern plains of the Earth Kingdom.

"It's very important," Kairi pulled out a scroll and laid it open on Mako's saddled back. "It has the power to end this war… It has the power to destroy the Earth Kingdom…."

-------------------------------------------------

**DJP: Well there ya go! Hope it was good, sorry if it was a bit clustered, had a lot of action and story line to get to. Hope you liked, please review!**

**Next time on Tale of the Earth:**

**Ran: Wow, we gotta get to the North Pole fast!**

**Kairi: Not so fast, you need to rest up first… Can't have you getting burned to a crisp and leaving me to do this alone.**

**Ran: Who's that?**

**Shan: Avatar Roku has sent me a vision! Sozen's Comet is returning this summer! **

**Kairi: What a weirdo…**

**Ran: Aww come on, maybe we should trust him!**

**Next time: Avatar's Message: The Crazy Earth Sculptor! **

**Shan: Yo! You guys are heading to where the Avatar is? That's so awesome!**


	3. The Crazy Earthbending Sculptor

**Book 1: Chapter 3: Avatars' Message: The Crazy Earth Sculptor! **

Ran held Mako's reigns tightly as he and Kairi rode the large Badgermole along the southern plains of the Earth Kingdom. "Okay, so this treasure thingy, how can it be that powerful? How can a single item have the power to destroy the Earth Kingdom?" The boy kept his eyes forward and focused on where he was going as he questioned the new, dark-haired female addition to the group.

"The treasure of the ancient Earth has the power to drain earth, rock, soil, anything of that nature of all its natural power, basically draining the ability to merge personal chi with natural chi, and destroying the effect and ability of Earthbending." Kairi sighed. "With that it would be like all the power of the Earth Kingdom just… fell apart."

"Dang, sounds serious, so where is it?" Ran looked back at her for a moment but then look forward as Mako bounced a bit from hitting a large rock.

"Since it has the power to drain the life out of any earth around it, when earthbenders discovered it, they placed it in the hands of people who had no need for earth, people who wouldn't betray the Earth Kingdom with such power…waterbenders." The dark-haired Firebender continued. "The North Pole is the most heavily guarded waterbending station, and has almost no earth to bend, so placing the treasure there made sense so that the treasure would do the least amount of damage possible."

"Hmm, so that's why you said we were going to the North Pole… And why didn't the firebenders know about this earlier? Sounds like something that would really be helpful in winning the war." Ran looked back again.

"It is, that's why the Earth Kingdom kept it on their top shelf of secrets. Few firebenders know what it is, and of that fewer actually believe it exists, could be just some propaganda for all they know. And of the firebenders who believe it exists, none know where it is. That's why the turning of that traitor Chyuu is so important. High ranking commanders like him would usually never betray their country, but since he did and he knows the secret, the Earth Kingdom is now in deep shit." Kairi sighed, going through some pouches on Mako's saddle to find some supplies.

Ran growled gripping Mako's reigns tighter. "Damn it… Chyuu you bastard…" He closed his eyes, nearly in tears of fury. "I swear I'll kill you."

"Big talk kid, first we need to get you fixed up, we need to get to the North Pole before Chyuu does, but not if it means killing ourselves in the process." She looked over Ran's many burn wounds from his fight with the Firebender Bei Bo Rong.

"I'll be fine…" Ran growled and then yelped as he felt a hard object hit the back of his head, turning around to see Kairi had just thrown a bag of medical supplies at him.

"We need to get to a town and get you some rest, preferably a town without Fire Nation prescience, they'd recognize me on the spot." Kairi continued riffling through Mako's pouches.

"Hmm? Some kind of famous Firebending outlaw or something?" Ran grinned, he knew not too many firebenders got out of the military and lived to tell about it.

"You could say that, what about you? For someone your age you're quite the bender. You survived two fights with a powerful Earthbending commander, and a fight with someone who most likely has a connection with the Dragon of the West, judging by his style. You didn't win mind you, but just surviving is pretty impressive." The Firebending refugee tossed an empty box of supplies over her shoulder as she spoke. "How old are you anyway?"

"I'm Seventeen." Ran grinned.

"Hmph, you're actually a year older than me huh? Odd, you're kinda small for your age." Kairi laughed softly.

"Who're you calling so small you can't tell him apart from all the grains of sand he bends!?" Ran snapped.

"I didn't say anything like that." Kairi sweatdropped. "Who taught you how to bend so well anyway?"

"King Bumi taught me back in Omashu." Ran grinned. "I'm the Omashu leader of the Rock Rock band, Ran Dejie!"

"Rock Rock Band?" Kairi's eye twitched. "Never heard of um…"

"Well, it's more of a local fame I guess…" Ran sighed as he spotted a town up ahead. "Awright! We can probably stock up in that place over there!"

Kairi sighed. "Alright… but I have a bad feeling about this…."

------------------------------------------

Bo stood on the metal deck of the new Fire Nation warship that had picked them up from the port they were just at. He watched as the wave lapped against the hull of the ship, clutching the chestplate of the new armor that had been given to him after that earthbending brat had broken the other he was wearing.

Even when it wasn't visible, he could still feel the scar burning into his skin, even though the fire had long since died down. The Fire Nation soldiers scurrying around the deck of the ship reminded him of the not long ago time when he had stayed on the same ship as Prince Zuko and General Iroh. He had to get back to his leader, no matter what.

"It's a beautiful ship, isn't it?" Chyuu smirked as he walked up behind Bo. "Sorry for the inconvenience, however our other ship was… impaired." He referred to the ship they left back at port, which had been smashed, thrown rocks at, put holes in, and shot lightning through. This new ship, called _The Chimera_, had picked them up from their previous point and given them reinforcements to replace the ones that Ran and Kairi had disposed of.

"How long until we catch up with General Iroh?" Bo questioned, still keeping focused on his goal.

"Knowing that ship, it could take any course to the North Pole, however since we are heading towards the same destination, we should be able to find him there, as well as the Avatar and the treasure I seek." He smirked.

"And the earthbending brat?"

"We'll find him soon enough, can't have him ruining our plot, can we? Him and that traitor should be within our grasp soon enough."

"You're one to be calling someone a traitor." Bo closed his eyes and turned around back to the officers' cabins. "I'll be in the cabins, call for me when we get somewhere worth mentioning." He sighed and walked away.

"Heh, I'll be sure to." Chyuu smirked smugly.

-----------------------------------------------------

"Wow, this place is pretty nice." Ran beamed as he and Kairi looked around the lively Earth Kingdom city, Mako had been too big to take into town without attracting attention, so he had been left on the outskirts.

"I suppose." Kairi looked around after she paid a man for some food and medical supplies. "If you're into the whole cheery townsfolk thing." She put the supplies in an Earth Kingdom bag and slipped a gray cloak over herself to hide her Fire Nation clothes. "Can't be attracting too much attention at this point."

"I suppose so, how'd you get so much money anyway?" Ran looked over everything that she bought, the bag was bulging nicely so it looked like they would be well stocked for some time.

"I… ummm borrowed it…" Kairi shifted her eyes slightly.

"I see… and why didn't you just 'borrow' the supplies as well?" The earthbending boy cocked an eyebrow.

"I only borrow from Fire Nation people." The dark-haired girl hmphed.

"Well I…" Ran was cut off when he heard some shouting. "What's that?" He turned around and saw a large brown-haired man running down the street, shouting maniacally

"The Avatars of the past have sent me a message! The war will be over soon! Sozen's comet is coming this summer!" The man shouted as he ran, waving his arms and earning strange looks from the people there.

"Shut up, liar!"

"Can't you give it a rest for once?"

"Geez, crazy old Shan's at it again."

"Man, what a whackjob." Kairi folded her arms as she watched the man heading towards them.

The man, apparently named Shan, ran straight up to Ran and grabbed him by the shoulders. "The Avatar's here man! He's going to restore order to the elements! The war's going to end!"

"Hey you!" The shopkeeper of the shop Kairi had bought the supplies at walked over and hit Shan with a board of wood over the head. The man went down surprisingly easy for a person of his size. "Stop harassing my customers with your crazy notions! They might not buy anything else because of you! I've had it up to here with you and your ramblings!" The shopkeep hit ran with the board again.

"Stop it!" Ran glared at the shop owner. He pulled out his Dadao and slashed through the board, causing the owner to fall over and crawl on the ground before running away screaming.

"Thanks dude… I don't always get the warmest welcomes around here, the people find it insulting that I keep talking about the Avatars, but Roku really spoke to me…" Shan whimpered as he began to stand up, rubbing the small bruise on his head.

"It's alright… I believe you." Ran smiled warmly.

"You what!?" Kairi and Shan said in unison, one out of shock, and the other out of delight.

"I believe you," Ran sized the man up, he was very large and muscular, but his body didn't look built for heavy fighting for some reason. The boy's eyes were drawn to the large scar going down to the bottom of Shan's left dark green eye. "I think you have an acute connection to the spirit world and therefore the Avatars trust you to convey their message."

"You're both even crazier than I thought." Kairi put her palm over her face and shook her head.

"Thank you man!" Shan hugged Ran tightly, nearly in tears. "You're the first one besides Shu and Ling to believe me!"

"OW! OW! Burn wounds, BURN WOUNDS!" Ran screamed in pain as he was hugged a bit too tightly.

"Oops, sorry kid." Shan backed up, noticing the burn marks on Ran's body for the first time. "Those look pretty painful, let's take you to my place and get you fixed up." Shan grinned and patted the boy on the shoulder.

"OW!!!!!"

"….Sorry…."

-----------------------------

"So, you're a traveling sculptor?" Kairi asked as she and Ran sat down at Shan's dinner table after night fell. The latter was shoveling food into his mouth as fast as he could after his long day of traveling, discovering treacheries and fighting.

"Yep, we go from town to town every once in a while, but we've been here in Teng village for quite some time now." Shan grinned as he started on his own food.

"Shan uses his earthbending to make statues and other works for the people, then we move on when the work dries up. A beautiful woman smirked as she placed more food on the table, the majority of which was snatched up by the ravenous Ran.

When they had got there, Shan had introduced them to his wife Shu, the beautiful woman serving them, and his daughter Ling, an adorable dark-haired girl sitting next to Ran and trying to take a bite out of a piece of bread much too big for her.

Ran grinned as he continued stuffing his face, his wounds felt much better now, when they got their Shu had dressed them and his other cut from Chyuu's sword properly and put medicine on them, saying that they would heal in a few days or so.

"And you guys are here on a quest to stop the Earth Kingdom from collapsing? Sounds heavy dude." Shan grinned and slapped his hand on the table. "If there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

"Yoube aweaby done enboufff…." (You've already done enough) Ran smiled with her mouth still full, earning him a hit from Kairi.

"Don't talk with your mouth full!"

"Sobby…" (Sorry…)

"We should get going though, we don't want to cause your family any more trouble. And we have to get to the North Pole before Chyuu and his forces." Kairi sighed. "Sorry to eat and run, but…" She tugged Ran by the collar, pulling him to the door and opening it before slamming it shut again and tackling him down behind the table, covering his mouth. "Shit…"

"What's wrong?" Shu looked out the window and gasped, rushing to Ling and rushing her away from the door and windows.

"What is it?" Shan blinked and looked around.

"Fire Nation…"

--------------------------------

Ran, Kairi, and Shan all snuck around in black cloaks in the dark night, trying not to be seen by the Fire Nation soldiers inspecting the town. "Find that traitor! She was seen heading in this direction and this is the only village for miles!"

"Damn, they're after me…" Kairi growled softly as she glared at the Fire Nation soldiers. "I can't use my firebending to take them out either, or else I'll give myself away and more collateral damage might be caused.

"Aww, you do have a heart after all." Ran smirked as he whispered.

"Of course I do moron!" Kairi whispered in a shouting tone, grounding Ran's head between her two fists.

"OW!" Ran whimpered softly.

"We don't want this village burning to the ground do we?" Kairi glared.

"…."

"DO WE!?"

"I guess not…" Ran sighed softly. "Well I can't call Mako either for the same reason, so our only choice is to sneak to the outskirts and get the hell out of here as fast as we can." he growled as well.

"Don't worry, we're almost there, you'll get there, don't worry." Shan smirked, he had agreed to see that they got out of town alright.

"Hey, I think I saw something down there, I'm going to go check it out.." A white-masked Fire Nation solider pointed to the alleyway where Ran, Shan, and Kairi were.

All of them thought mentally as they tried to back further down the alleyway. 

"Do something!" Ran whispered to Kairi as Shan backed down the alleyway more.

"Like what?!"

"Shoot some lightning or something to distract them!"

"I can't do that lightning trick a lot! It's too taxing!"

"Damnit!" Ran gave a stomp, accidentally eartbending and causing a loud thump a few feet away.

"Hey, you stop!" The Firebender ran towards the are of earth Ran had bended, instead of the alleyway.

"Whew, that was lucky." Ran whispered.

"Achoo!" Shan sneezed from part of his dust cloud he had created out of earthbending.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ran and Kairi glared at the older man.

"Let's just get out of this alleyway, I'll explain." Shan punched the wall of the alleyway next to them, making a loud sound and drawing the Firebending guards there.

"Hey, you three! Stop right there!" A few Fire Nation soldiers shouted into the cloud of dust. When they got there however they were surprised to discover it wasn't the renegades at all, but three earthbent statues, made to look a lot alike the three people, impossible to tell through the cloud. "What the hell!?" The guard shouted. "Where'd they go!?"

Ran chuckled as the three ran down the city streets. "Your sculpting abilities sure come in handy, too bad we can't take you with us!" he laughed as they approached the outskirts.

"Yeah... too bad…" Shan chuckled.

Now that they were out of the city, Ran blew hard into his flute to call Mako.

Kairi and Shan covered their ears at the sharp note. "Well? Where the hell is your damn badgermole Ran?" Kairi growled.

Ran looked around and saw nothing, no familiar masked face, no cloud of dust, nothing. "I don't understand, that should've worked." He blew into the flute sharply again. "MAKO!"

"We have your only transport out of here, so I suggest you come quietly." A firebending commander snarled from atops his Komodo Rhino behind them as he and some other Fire Nation soldiers, two also riding Komodo Rhinos ran up behind them, dragging a bound Mako with at least a dozen ropes behind them.

"Damn, they've got us trapped." Ran growled as he put his flute away and put his hands behind his head.

"And if I attack, they'll kill Mako, our only transport to the North Pole." Kairi begrudgingly repeated Ran's actions.

"You two big guy." The commander nodded to Shan.

"Sir, ready to burn the village to the ground?" One of the soldiers riding a Komodo Rhino asked the commander.

"What!? WHY!? You have us! Leave the village alone!" Ran shouted from his place kneeling in the dirt.

"Honorable, however you forget that we are fighting a war here, we don't spare enemy villages." The commander chuckled evilly. "On the ground big guy or your friends get it!"

Shan clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, grinding his teeth as well. "Don't you dare lay a hand on that village!" The man stomped firmly, raising a rock and punching it to the commander.

The two soldiers around him shot tongues of fire from their fists, crossing where the rock was and scorching it to dust on impact. "Such a weak Earthbender." The commander commented.

"I'll kill you!" He growled. "I have family in that village, there's no way I'll let you lay a hand on Ling or Shu, or any of the other people in that village! They may have mocked me, beaten me, called me insane, but there's no way I'm going to let some heartless bastards like you hurt them!" Shan's eyes turned blue and his voice became distorted.** "Prepare for death…"**

"What the hell!?" The commander shouted as he and the soldiers backed up slightly, intimidated by the glow.

"An Avatar state transformation!? How they hell did he do that? He's not the Avatar!" Kairi shouted.

"Get him you fools! Glowing eyes can't kill you, attack!" The commander shouted in a panic as the soldiers rushed Shan.

Shan gave a firm stomp, making a crater several meters wide, engulfing the soldiers and Komodo Rhinos, but leaving Mako on an unaffected section of earth.

"What the hell is going on!?" Several soldiers shouted from inside the crater as Shan clasped his fists, turning the dirt around them into sand that engulfed the firebenders. Some faces and appendages were visible of the soldiers as the sand lifted out of the hole, carrying every one of them with it.

"Please, please let us go!" The commander pleaded to the glowing Shan.

**"Never return…"** Shan growled in his distorted voice as he swung his arms, tossing the composite glob of sand, firebedners and Komodo Rhinos over his shoulder, which faded out of sight before it touched down.

The blue glow from Shan died down as he kneeled in the dirt, panting and sweating. "What… the…. Hell… just happened?"

"Apparently not only does your connection with the spirit world give you messages from the spirit world, in times of great anguish, the Avatars of the past can channel themselves through you as well." Ran observed.

"S-So he wasn't crazy after all…" Kairi's eyes widened.

"Hehe, nope, just got a little bump on the noggin during the war, I guess that's what caused this connection you're talking about." Shan tapped himself on the head lightly.

"It's incredible, I've only heard of a few people who've had such a connection to the spirit world, the Dragon of the West has been there too, but still, non-Avatars aren't supposed to glow like that." Ran stood up from his crouched position.

"Well, it doesn't matter, we should be going." Kairi also stood up and gave a few shots of small flame from her fingertips to burn through Mako's rope and set the badgermole free. "We've wasted enough time here and we need to be getting to the North Pole as quickly as possible."

"I suppose you're right…" Ran sighed as he and Kairi hopped up on Mako's saddle.

"Hold up, I think you guys are forgetting something." Shan smiled warmly.

Ran looked around. "What?"

"Me."

"Huh?" Kairi and Ran both blinked in confusion.

----flashback----

"What? Why do you have to go with them?" Shu hugged her husband tightly, on the verge of tears.

"Daddy, don't leave!" Ling cried as she clinged to Shan's leg.

Shan sighed and looked out the window to where Ran and Kairi were already sneaking out the back door to get away from the oncoming Fire Nation soldiers. "There was another part to my last message, Roku told me…"

"Shan, two people will come to where you are, they will need you on their quest, many lives will be lost if you don't go with them. I cannot allow this war which is my fault to continue any longer. Please go with them, they need your help to accomplish their quest. It is your destiny."

"I have to follow my destiny, it's what's best for everyone." He hugged both his loved ones tightly, on the verge of tears himself. "Take care, I don't think you'll have any more problems with Firebenders after they find out the others aren't here."

"I understand…" Shu wiped her tears away and hugged her husband again. "Just promise you won't go out and die foolishly, promise us you'll come back."

"Pwomise daddy!"

"I promise, both of you." Shan sobbed. "I won't die, I'll come back, and I'll see you both again, this I swear!"

"Goodbye dear."

"Byes daddy."

"I love you both." Shan wiped away his tears and silently walked outside to where Ran and Kairi were. "Let's get going, we have to make it to the outskirts of the city."

--------end flashback-------------

"Awww, that's so sweet!" Ran flailed.

"You're so girly." Kairi's eye twitched.

"Says the girl." Ran stuck his tongue out. Kairi gave him a swift punch in the face and took Mako's reigns.

"Well if you're coming, get on." She smirked.

"Alright! To the North Pole! Whoohoo!" Shan grinned broadly as he climbed on Mako, raising a fist as the morning broke the darkness with dawn and the badgermole once again began speeding through the plains.

Kairi yawned as she kept control of Mako's reigns, watching Shan be hyper and Ran fall asleep, still laying where she had punched him. "Great… another morning person…"

**-------------------------------------------**

**DJP: Hope everyone liked, if not, sorry but too bad XP Shan, Shu, and Ling all belong to CrazyFishie, please review!**

**Next time on Avatar, The Last Airbender: Tale of the Earth:**

**Ran: Whee! We finally get a break!  
**

**Kairi: Lazy ass, we only just started!**

**Ran: -whimpers- But we've been fighting all this time… I need to train my Earthbending to get stronger anyway! I can't lose to Chyuu or that Bo guy again!**

**Zhang: What are you guys doing in my training area? Whoa! Fire Nation, shit!**

**Kairi: I'm not your typical Firebender…**

**Next time! The promising Earthbending student! **

**Zhang: Hey! You guys are gonna teach my Earthbending whether you like it or not!**


	4. The Promising Earthbending Student

Book 1: Chapter 4: The promising Earthbending Student 

"Are we there yet?"

"No…"

"Are we there yet?"

"No!"

"How bout now?"

"NO!!!"

"Kairi…"

"WHAT!?" Kairi screamed, giving a glare over to Shan as both he and Ran cowered in fear of the scary woman.

"…We're here…" he whispered as he pointed to a large rock formation surrounded by a forest in the distance.

Kairi sighed as Mako came to a stop, "Finally… traveling with you idiots is more stressful than I thought." She slid off the Badgermole and looked around. "Why are we stopping here? We just stopped at Shan's town a few hours ago."

"Whoohoo! Break time!" Ran shouted as he jumped off Mako, carrying a bag of supplies. "Come on Kairi, lighten up. We could all use a break, the North Pole isn't going anywhere."

"Lazy assess…" The Fire Nation woman muttered as she watched Ran and Shan run through the forest, screaming with joy like little kids. "Come on Mako." She sighed as she pulled the Badgermole's reigns, following the two boys into the forest.

"SO COOL!" Came a shout from deeper in the forest. As Kairi and Mako made their way through, they eventually found Shan and Ran standing in front of a huge stone waterfall, the foliage from the forest surrounding it, even creating a small rainbow and making for an overall beautiful scene.

"Hmm… nice." Kairi smirked softly, taking a seat in some soft dirt and watching Ran and Shan take off their overclothes and splash around like four year olds.

"Besides." Ran laughed as he climbed out of the water. "This'll give me a good chance to get some training in. I'll need to get stronger if we're going to beat those two guys we met before on the beach."

"The crazy Fire-breathing soldier and the traitor commander you told me about earlier?" Shan blinked as he too climbed out and dried off.

"Yeah, you're right, I can't take them both on myself, so you need to be less of a wimp." Kairi nodded. "Alright, we'll take a break."

"Whoohoo!" Ran and Shan both gave each other a high-five and ran over to Kairi with the intention to hug her.

"Touch me and you'll be leaving this forest in pieces." She growled.

Both men froze in their tracks. "Uh… maybe I should go start training…" Ran muttered as he walked off with Mako. "Come on boy, she might try to cook you if we leave you here…"

--------------------------------

"Alright, get ready Mako, Earth Bullet!" Ran fired a boulder at the badgermole, which was easily broken over his tough hide. "Nice one. Try breaking this! Spike Kick!" Ran leaned a kick into the ground, causing a row of stone spikes to shoot out, heading straight for Mako.

The Badgermole jumped into the air to avoid the attack, nearly landing on Ran and causing his own column of earth around him, knocking Ran off his feet. "Wow, Good bout Mako, you just keep getting better and better." The Earthbending boy laughed as he stood up, brushing the dirt off him.

The Badgermole nodded, but stopped abruptly as he sniffed the air, growling into a pair of bushes nearby. "What is it buddy?" Ran patted his friend and walked over to the bushes and kneeled down.

"EEP!" A voice cried out from the plant as it rustled and shook for a moment before becoming still.

"You can come out now Shan, I'm not scared of you." Ran sighed, but lifted his head when there was no answer. "Whoever's there better come out right now or else!" He stomped the ground, releasing a small tremor.

His calls were met only by more rustling further away and then silence. "Damn.. well whatever it was, it seems like it's gone now." He turned away from the noise and back to Mako, patting his snout. "Let's find somewhere to take a break." He sighed, walking away from the dueling spot and finding another clear, leaning up against a rock and looking up at the sky.

Mako brushed him with his snout softly, as if to ask what was wrong. "I don't know buddy." He patted his pet again. "It's just that, ever since I was little, I never knew my parents, King Bumi was the only one there to take care of me, he was like a grandfather to me, and now I'm out on my own, this is the first chance since I left that I've had to think things over."

Both Ran and Mako were so lost in his speech that they didn't notice a young girl sitting on the other side of the rock. Neither did the girl notice the Badgermole or boy. "My parents lied to me, they never told me I was a bender, and now I'm on my own, this is the first chance I've had to think about everything…" She said to herself, looking up at the sky as well.

"I just feel so… alone." They said together.

A chill ran through both their spines as they finally realized the other's presence, climbing around the rock and meeting each other face to face. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" They shouted at each other. Both of them crawled away from the rock, staring at each other.

"H-Hey… you're that punk I saw Earthbending earlier…" The girl muttered.

"And that must mean you were the thing crawling in the bushes." Ran blinked at her.

"I'm not a thing…" She growled. "My name is Zhang Xiao Liann."

"What kind of stupid name is that?" Ran cocked his eyebrow as the two stood up.

"It means little lotus!" Xiao growled, glaring at Ran.

"Alright, alright, no need to get touchy." Ran sighed. "I'm Ran Dejie, nice to meet you." He walked over to her and extended a hand. "You mentioned my bending. Are you an Earthbender too?"

"Sorta." She chuckled softly.

"Whoot! That's awesome!" Ran grabbed her hands playfully and did a little happy dance. "That makes two Earthbenders I've met in the past few hours!" He chuckled.

Xiao raised her eyebrow. "You're here with friends?"

"Yeah, Kairi and Shan, you should come meet them, come on!" Ran grabbed her hand and dragged her back in the direction of the waterfall, quickly followed by Mako, who shook his head softly.

--------------------------

"EEK! Fire Nation! You turned me in! Ran, you jerk!" Xiao Lian ran back and forth screaming as soon as she saw Kairi.

"Relax, she's not here to hurt you, she's mean, but not evil like most Firebenders." Shan grinned from his place ontop of a rock.

The Firebending woman leaned against Mako and ignored Shan's comment. "So, Ms. Zhang…" Kairi looked the girl over. She looked pretty pale, especially for an Earthbender, she had long black hair in a braid behind her and two strands sticking out on either side of her face. Her golden eyes scanned the new girl's green ones for any sign of lying.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Damnit! Why is everyone we meet older than me!?" Kairi flailed. "Alright…" She regained her composure. "Where are your parents? Not like this is an area someone travels alone for no reason."

"My parents never told me I was an Earthbender, they hated me for it, so I had to find out on my own when some creep trying to do who knows what." She sighed. "I used a rock and scared him away, then once I figured out what happened, I ran away from home, I couldn't keep living without expressing who I was as an Earthbender."

"Wow, it's tough being a kid." Shan blinked as he sat listening to Xiao's short story.

"The problem is, I only figured all this out a short time ago, I've only been on my own for about a month." She sighed softly. "I still can't really control my Earthbending all that well, it only happens when I get really pissed or scared."

"So you need a master." Ran finished. "Shan, maybe you could help her out?"

"Sorry dude, I'm an artist, not a fighter." He chuckled softly.

"Then I'll help you myself." Ran grinned and pointed to himself.

"No way…" Kairi growled.

"Huh? Why not?" Ran and Shan turned to her.

"Because it's irritating enough traveling with you two losers, I can't have another little brat running around."

"Who're you calling a brat!?" Xiao growled. "Not like I'd want to be trained by that punk anyway, I've seen him fight and he's far from a master!"

"Hey! I'm not a punk!" Ran joined into the shouting triangle.

"She has a point though…" Shan said calmly.

"Stay out of this!" The three shouted at the sculptor.

Ran sighed, "Maybe she's right, but everyone has to start somewhere, I'm the best Earthbender in our group and maybe in teaching I will learn, it would give me someone to train with besides Mako." The Earthbending boy sighed.

"Well… you are pretty weak…." Kairi mused.

"We can all agree Ran is weak." Shan sighed. "But that's not the point here. The point here is that we are trying to get to the North Pole here, and we need a small and elite squad."

Xiao's eyes turned sad and her head lowered as she feared she wouldn't get into the group.

"However, we also need as many people as we can get, and as long as it doesn't mess with the efficiency of the group, more people and skills can only help." Shan smiled warmly at the girl.

"Whoohoo! You can stay!" Ran grinned as he looked at Xiao.

"Provided you train with Ran so both of you get stronger, bad enough having one weakling on the team, can't have two. And also provided that you don't slow us down any." She sighed.

"Yosh!" Xiao gave a silly salute.

"I'm surrounded my idiots…" Kairi slapped herself in the face.

"HEY!" Ran shouted, as if just realizing something. "Do you guys think I'm weak!?"

"YOU'RE SO FREAKIN SLOW!"

-----------------------------------

A few hours later, the sun was beginning to grow low in the sky as Xiao and Ran stood in a rocky part of the forest, ready to start training. "Alright… first thing to Earthbending." Ran smirked.

"Yeah?"

"Take those off." He pointed at her.

Ran was met by a large rock being thrown at his head, knocking the Earthbender over. "PERVERT!"

"OW! I didn't say 'get naked'! I meant your shoes! Earthbending works better when you can feel the earth underneath your feet."

"Oh… well why didn't you say that!?" Xiao growled, taking off her shoes as Ran did the same.

"Alright, now there's some things you need to know before we start. In Earthbending, there are two natural animals that give the Earthbender power, the tiger for strong power." He punched a rock, completely breaking it into many little pieces. "And the Crane for soft power." He clenched his fists, reforming the pieces into one rock again.

"Neat, can we start now? I'm serious about this and need to start moving rocks, I have to become stronger in order to become a full-fledged Earthbender." Xiao bounced impatiently at the little display.

"Don't be impatient, Earthbending is all about the neutral jing, watching and waiting." Ran sighed as he walked over to her.

"Sorry, I'm just trying to make up for lost time." The girl rubbed the back of her head and chuckled nervously.

"Show me your stance." Ran gave her a hard, mentoring look.

"All right…" Xiao made an attempt at an Earthbending stance by crouching down and clenching her fists.

"Wrong!" Ran kicked her leg, leaving her to topple over. "The whole point of Earthbending is to be rock-like! You must be sturdier than the rock you are moving! You must be unmovable!"

"Alright, alright, I get it." Xiao took another stance, widening her legs a bit.

"Wrong!"

"AH!"

"Wrong!"

"Crap!" 

"WRONG!"

"Shit!"

After many stances, each of which leading to Xiao being on the ground, Ran sighed backed up a bit. "You have to find a sturdy stance, one that won't let you be knocked down."

"I'm trying! I'm trying to be rock-like but I can't! I learned how to stand around and get knocked on my butt a long time ago! I don't need a punk like you telling me what to do!" Xiao shouted in frustration as she stood up.

"If you're not going to respect me, maybe you shouldn't learn from me!" Ran shouted, becoming equally frustrated.

"Maybe I shouldn't!" Xiao shouted back, beginning to walk away. "I can find a better Earthbending master on my own!" She screamed taking off into the forest.

_I was right… I am alone!_

---------------------

Xiao growled as she continued running through the forest until she found the dirt path to the next town. "The best thing I can do now is forget I ever met that jerk, I'm sure there's a much better teacher than him in the next town, he wasn't even that good." She huffed, kicking a rock as she walked down the road.

"Well helllloooo there." Came an all too familiar voice that sent chills up Xiao's spine. She turned around to see three men, her eyes were drawn to the one speaking in particular. He was tall, had dark messy hair and looked to be either drunk or very tired. He recognized the face and voice as the man who had tried to attack her before, when she had discovered her Earthbending powers.

"G-Get away." She backed up, holding her arms out defensively. "I'll beat you again!"

"Yeah right, that last time was a fluke and you know it." One of the other men grinned.

"Was not! I'll smash you over the head with a rock if you get anywhere near me!" She backed up more, getting ready to run if she needed to.

"Prove it!" The third man laughed like a hyena.

"Fine! GAH!" She stomped the ground, however sighed hopelessly as nothing happened.

"HAH! I knew it!" The original man grinned, reaching for Xiao before she could run away and grabbing her wrist, pulling her closer. "You're ours now girly…" He grinned.

"HEY! LEMME GO!" She shouted and struggled in vain, being held back by all three men. She stomped the foot of one man in desperation, struggling out of his grasp as the man yelped in pain. She ran a few feet away, not being able to get far while being chased by the three.

"Get back here! Come on!" The men shouted while chasing Xiao and grabbing her again.

"Three guys against a defenseless girl? How unchivalrous." A voice chuckled from behind them. "I suggest you let her go."

"Huh? Who's there!?" The drunk man growled as he turned around, only to stare in shock as his two friends fell after rocks came smashing into their faces. Ran stood in front of both of them, his Dadao drawn and two holes in the ground from where he had thrown the stones.

"You punk! I'm not defenseless, now get out of here before you get yourself killed!" Xiao shouted, still being held onto by the drunken man.

"You've got a lot of nerve, attacking my cronies and interfering when I'm about to take my new friend here home." He nodded to Xiao with a pissed off look on his face.

"I know you can't tell, so here's a tip. When a girl's screaming and kicking at you, that usually means they want nothing to do with you." Ran sheathed his Dadao and put his fists up. "Let her go or else I'll make you do so." He growled.

_What's with this guy? He's like a totally different person than before…_Xiao blinked, staring at the two men confronting one another.

The drunken man let out a roar of laughter. "Make me? You may have gotten a few cheap bending shots in, but I don't need tricks, I'm strong!"

"Yeah right, a strong person would give a woman the respect she deserves, not pick on her like you do." Ran struck his stance. "I won't need any tricks for this either, because I am stronger than you!"

"Damn you, you arrogant punk!" The drunkard rushed Ran, however was diverted by a simple movement of the boy's hand, pushing his fist down without even moving his feet.

"I'll kill you!" The man roared, raising his other fist, which was blocked just as easily.

Ran looked over the man's broken form. "WRONG!" He shouted, kicking the man's leg and making him fall flat on his face just as Xiao had before.

The drunk man looked up at Ran from the dirt. "W-What are you?"

"I am… unmovable!" He gave a firm stomp, pushing the man and his friends together with two slabs of earth pressing against each other. "Now never bother her again!" He stomped again, launching the three men into the air and off into the distance.

Xiao fell to the ground, face in her hands after the tension of battle had lifted. Ran walked over to her slowly and kneeled down. "You alright Lian?" He asked, trying to use a less formal name for her.

"No! I'm trying to learn Earthbending so that I can be strong and stand up for myself! And then you come along and save me! I may have found out I'm an Earthbender but I haven't changed at all!" She sobbed softly as she looked up at the boy. "No matter what I do, someone else always has to protect me! My parents, you, I want to be able to protect myself! But no matter how hard I try, I can't get the earth to bend anymore!"

"You just need more practice and patience, let me tell you something, you've already learned a lot more than I could have in one month, I couldn't move a rock for a long time, King Bumi just kept me studying about patience and form for three months."

"THE King Bumi? The old fart who rules Omashu?" Xiao blinked.

"Yup, and about other people protecting you, it's alright, family will always want to protect you. I was an orphan as a child, and King Bumi was the closest thing I had to a relative, but now that I'm on my own, I've found a new family, Kairi and Shan, and even though I've only known them a few days, I feel like they're my family, and we want you to be part of our family too, if you'll accept us." Ran smiled warmly.

"What's with you? You go from a goofy and clueless guy to this." Xiao wiped her tears away and chuckled softly.

"Whatchu mean? I haven't changed at all." He laughed with her. "Come on, we should get back, the others will be wondering what happened to us." He chuckled softly and helped her up.

---------------------------------------------

"Well, about time you two got back." Shan grinned as Xiao and Ran walked back to the group of two humans and a Badgermole.

"Yeah, what happened?" Kairi raised an eyebrow suspiciously at the two.

"Nothing happened." Ran waved his hands defensively. "Training just ran a bit long today."

"Yeah, but I learned lots." Xiao grinned and chuckled softly, thinking about the day she had.

"Well good, now that you two have had enough fun splashing in the mud, we can get going." Kairi sighed, climbing on Mako's back. "Come on, we've wasted enough time here, the sun's about to set again."

Xiao, Ran, and Shan smiled as they climbed on board the Badgermole and sat in the saddle as he took off, speeding across the forest again on his claws.

"And so, the noble North Pole expedition is headed off again, this time with a new member, the promising Earthbending student, Zhang Xiao Lian. Who knows what lies in wait for our heroes across the next horizon?"

"Who the hell are you talking to!?" Kairi slapped Shan over the head with a bag while the other two laughed loudly, speeding on to their next adventure.

**-----------------------------------------------**

**DJP: Alright, hope this chapter was good, sorry if it wasn't, I've been having writers block lately and been having trouble putting my thoughts together. Zhang Xiao Lian belongs to a very good friend of mine, FireThief.**

**DJM: and Dusty-chan! –heart-eyes-**

**DJP: -slaps- get out of here! You're not even in this fic! Anyways…**

**Next time on Tale of the Earth:**

**Bo: I've learned… I'm different than I was before! **

**Scars of the past!**

**Bo: I will never make that mistake again! **


	5. Scars of the Past

**Book 1, Chapter 5: Scars of the Past**

Bo sighed as he sat in his private room of _The Chimera_, a tapestry with the Fire Nation insignia above his head as he sipped a cup of tea, exhaling and letting steam come out of his nostrils from the hot drink. "White Jade… General Iroh's favorite." He winced as he heard a loud banging on his metal door. "What?"

"Commander Bo sir!" A Fire Nation foot soldier entered hastily, obviously panicked because of being in the presence of a superior officer, he obviously had seen what high ranking Fire Nation officials did to soldiers who gave them unpleasant news. "Commander Chyuu has told me to inform you when we reach port."

"And?"

"We've reached port sir!" The nervous soldier shouted. "We're docking at Tanshu town now. Would you like to disembark sir?"

"Yes." Bo set his tea down and stood up silently, practically ignoring the soldier was there besides answering him.

"O-okay then sir, I'll have a squad to escort you…"

"I'll be going alone." He took off his bulky armor and threw on a simpler reddish brown robe and walked out of the room, not saying another word to the foot soldier.

"A-Alright then sir…" The soldier stared as he was left alone in the room.

----------------------------------

Kairi sighed as she poked the campfire and hot embers shot out and flew into the pale morning sky. It had been a few days since they had picked up Zhang as a traveler and they had covered a fair distance of land, however they were still in the middle-southern Earth Kingdom region. At this rate the Fire Nation would have the treasure of the ancient earth before they were even halfway there.

"Couldn't sleep?" Ran yawned as he sat up, his hair sticking up on all ends as he brushed himself off and got out of his brown sleeping bag. He looked around and saw that Shan and Zhang were both still out cold, the latter curled up and snoring lightly.

"I don't sleep well." She sighed and poked the fire again, her eyes seeming to flicker as she watched the small fire.

"Something bothering you?" The earthbending boy walked over to her, carefully stepping over Mako's paw and sitting down on the log next to the fire.

"Nothing new… just, reminiscing I guess would be the right word for it." She sighed again as she kept her golden eyes on the dwindling fire.

"Oh? Anything interesting?" Ran smirked, only to look down to the fire as well when she didn't answer. "Kairi… all these people are after you now, why would you choose a life like that? What caused you to become a Fire Nation refugee? You could've stayed in your own nation, not that I'm not happy you did, but why leave your home?"

-----------------------------------------------

Bo walked through Tanshu town silently, going fairly unnoticed since he wasn't wearing his usual Fire Nation armor that designated him as a Fire Nation officer. The town seemed like an average, peaceful Earth Kingdom town, although there was a looming tension in the quiet air because of the Fire Nation warship docked in their port.

The Fire Nation commander raised his hand up just in time to catch a round object that was flying straight at his head. He lowered it and dropped the ball at his feet. "Sorry Mister!" A young boy ran up to him, laughing as he took the ball from the ground. "Got a little out of hand."

"It's fine…" Bei Bo sighed and looked around, finding nothing of particular interest around the town. He might just have to go back to the ship and wait until they reached another port.

"What's your name?" The commander looked down to see the boy still standing there holding his ball, a stupid grin on his face and one or two baby teeth missing from his mouth.

"My name is… Yun." He lied, not wanting people to know his real name unless it was necessary.

"Cool, I'm Kuang." The child pointed to himself and laughed. "What're you doing here? It's obvious you don't live around here."

"It is?" Bo raised an eyebrow, hoping his cover as a Fire Nation officer wasn't blown already with his first few minutes into town.

"Yeah, your clothes, they scream Northern Earth Kingdom." Kuang smirked. He looked down to the ball in his hands. "Say, do you know how to play? All my friends are away."

The Fire Nation man sighed, not wanting to be too eager to say no, but also not wanting to play with the child either way. "No, I don't."

"Aww, how come? Didn't you ever play ball when you were my age?" Kuang grinned, looking up to Bo as if it was a younger sibling talking to an older one.

"Can't say that I did…"

---flashback----

Bei Bo Rong had been born in the Fire Nation capital, living there most of his life and treated like royalty. He lived the usual life of a Fire Nation elite, dignified yet honored. He attended the Fire Lord's celebrations and could still remember the day when Fire Lord Ozai had been crowned, being a young boy at the time.

He rarely had time to play as a child with all his royal duties and appearances he had to make, but there was still one person around him who knew how to have fun, General Iroh. The good general had taken him as a son and student, although there was no blood bond between them, there was still a strong connection. He had met General Iroh when he had become a soldier in the army and was put under his command, he had even been taught some of the great Fire Bender's most powerful secrets. However he still had picked up many of Iroh's quirks, like his love for tea and his skills at Pai Sho.

Over all that he had learned however, today was going to be a great day, today Iroh had done him a great favor, and allowed him to sit in on a war planning meeting. There was going to be a massive strike against a large western Earth Kingdom base, and Bo was going to be able to see it in the planning stages. Commander Yin, a respectable naval fleet commander would be heading the invasion and presenting the plan to the Fire Lord himself.

As Iroh and Bo entered the war room and looked around, he saw many of the generals that would be overhearing Yin's plan, as well as Yin himself. The commander was a tall, black-haired man with hair that went down to his shoulders, even though part of it was still in a knot on top of his head. But most of all, Bo remembered those eyes, they were cold and a sharp yellow with a red tint to the irises, looking almost inhuman. He would never forget those eyes as long as he lived.

The two sat down as Yin prepared to explain his plan, and Bo spotted the Fire Lord, he was usually secluded in a dark space, however this time he was sitting in clear view of the council, so Bo could see his entire face. He had cold yellow eyes as well, however they didn't seem to have the same sharpness as Yin's, almost as if he had an air of 'trust me' about them, however he was surely dangerous.

"Greetings Fire Lord Ozai, esteemed officials of the Fire Nation military, and honored guests." Commander Yin gave a brief glance around the room, looking straight at Bo for a moment before looking back to Ozai. "Today hopefully we will see the way that the western Earth Kingdom base will fall beneath the might of our military."

"The invasion will begin here, on the western shore of the Earth Kingdom." Yin pointed to a spot on the map between the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. "From this spot on the shore I request twenty warships of men to be brought upshore of the base."

"Twenty ships!?" A general exclaimed. "Why so many? Sure the base is fairly big, but it should be able to be taken down with half that much!"

Yin cleared his throat and ignored the general, keeping his eyes on the Fire Lord the whole time. "From there, the soldiers will mount a land assault and catch the Earth Kingdom army off guard, circling around the base and completely eliminating all trace of the base and its defenses off the map."

"I see, complete annihilation, that's your strategy?" The general from before calmed down a bit.

"Yes," Yin acknowledged him this time, smirking softly. "This is costly, however anyone who dares to stand against the Fire Nation will suffer nothing but complete and utter destruction. This attack will not only destroy the base, but break the morale of the region."

Bo clenched his fists, angered by the commander's last statement. His knuckles turned white as he sat there, growling and barely able to keep a lid on his temper. "Bei, is there something wrong?" Iroh whispered to the child, but it was too late, as Bo shot up, he earned stares from Iroh, Yin, Ozai, and several of the other generals. "You're insane!" He challenged.

"Bo, sit!" Iroh shouted quickly.

"No! I'm sorry General Iroh, but this man's plan is completely flawed!" Bo growled, pointing to Yin fiercely.

"Need I remind you, child, that you are a guest here in the war room?" Yin spoke smugly as he stared the boy down, a look of angry determination on his face.

"You aren't fit to lead Fire Nation soldiers! Your plan puts many soldiers in danger where they need not be! We could launch an assault from the shore, where we have an advantage and use half as many troops if we simply allow the Earth Kingdom to retreat to the east, and the base will still fall!"

"Anyone who stands against us deserves to die!" Yin repeated, having a second meaning addressed at the boy now.

"How are we supposed to share the greatness of the Fire Nation with the world, if we annihilate everyone who opposes us!? If there's no world left besides us, we haven't accomplished anything!" Bo shouted, sticking his nose right in the commander's face, despite Iroh's vain attempts to get him to sit down. "Furthermore, that plan simply put more Fire Nation soldiers at risk when they need not be, when they could be here, defending our great nation!"

"How dare you challenge me boy!" Yin snarled, giving off an animalistic quality in his voice, almost like the hissing of a snake. "Now I challenge you! An Agni Kai at sundown! You will pay for your disrespect!"

"I accept! I won't lose! Someone like you couldn't possibly defeat me, you can't even make a decent battle plan!" Bo smirked arrogantly.

----end flashback----

Bo snapped back to the present fully as Kuang's ball whizzed by his head, going into his goal post. He was so immersed in his tale of foolishness that he wasn't really concentrating on the game.

"Man, five to zero, you were right, you really don't know how to play." Kuang grinned broadly.

"Oh really?" Bo smirked as he picked up the ball, throwing it so hard that it hit Kuang in the stomach, sending him and the ball into the opposite goalpost. "What was that?" he and the boy both laughed.

As he continued playing with the boy, he quickly gained the lead now that he was focused. "Let's see, that's now seven to five." He smirked as he spun the ball on his finger. "I believe that means I won." He tossed the boy his ball and started heading back to his ship.

"Hey wait, where're you going?" The boy protested.

"Sorry kid, it's been fun, but I… have some business to take care of, later." He waved him off as he continued walking down the path.

--------------------------------------

Kairi watched the sun slowly rising as she began to recount her tale. "When I was little, my parents got involved in one of the battles of the war and were killed by Fire Nation soldiers. I don't know why, whether it was an accident or not, I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter. I fled my home nation with my friend, Fa Tai. We came to the Earth Kingdom together… but it wasn't any easier for us…"

---flashback---

Kairi and Fa Tai laughed softly as they walked around the Earth Kingdom market. They had been together ever since coming to the Earth Kingdom, and while they couldn't erase what had happened in the Fire Nation, but being together had somewhat helped to heal the wounds they both had.

Fa Tai bounced a fruit she had stolen from a cart in her hand as they walked, taking a bite out of it. "I can't believe people around here leave their supplies so unguarded, this must be one of those places that hasn't been touched by the war yet." She shook her head, letting her long black hair flow behind her.

"Well that's all the better for us, I don't want anything else to happen because of this stupid war." Kairi sighed as she looked around.

"Hey you! Stop! Thief!" Called a voice from over their shoulders.

"Shit!" The girls looked at each other, and then at the stolen fruit. They both took off running, Kairi ducked behind a market counter while Fa Tai continued running, ramming straight into a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers. "Crap…" The girl muttered as the Earthbenders grabbed her.

"Officers! Officers! This girl stole some fruit from my cart, see?" The shopkeeper held up the fruit she had bitten.

The Earthbending commander looked her over for a moment, his eyes widened. "That doesn't seem to be the biggest problem here." He looked into the girl's golden eyes and knew instantly that she was from the Fire Nation. "This girl could be a Fire Nation spy, we can't risk her getting back to her people and leading an attack on this city. Our town has enjoyed a great peace and I don't intend for that to end anytime soon." He grabbed her by the wrist and tossed her to some other Earthbending soldiers. "Take her to the base, she'll be our prisoner of war."

"What!? No! Let me go! Let me go!" Fa Tai screamed and pleaded as the Earthbenders dragged her away. Kairi sat wide-eyed behind the counter, burying her face in her hands and sobbing softly.

----end flashback-----

"They hated us, because we were Firebenders. And I don't blame them. Firebenders killed my parents, Firebenders started this war, Firebenders are horrible cruel people and will do anything, kill anyone who stands against them." Kairi's eyes became sad as she stared into the fire. "But I'm not like them, I'm not cruel like they are, that's why I stand and fight, that's why I will defend the Earth Kingdom to my last breath, that's why I betrayed my homeland."

Ran stayed silent for a moment, listening to the soft morning sounds and watching the orange sun rise over the trees. It was said that the sun was the source of a Firebender's power. "I guess everywhere's like that. There are good and bad people wherever you go, those Earthbenders had no right to take your friend away no matter what, she didn't do anything to them. When you think about it, the four nations aren't that different after all."

Kairi's eyes narrowed and she turned away sharply, looking off into the forest. "You just don't understand! It's different in the Fire Nation, it's like a whole different world there, it's all we know…"

"Maybe it is like a different world…" Ran kept his eyes on the sun. "Tell me, can you see the sun rise from the Fire Nation?"

"Of course, why?" The Firebending deserter looked back to the Earthbending boy.

"The same sunrise, the same sky." Ran looked up to the heavens and sighed. "Two worlds, one sky…"

--------------------------------

Bo walked aboard _The Chimera _once again, only to be greeted by Commander Chyuu, the Earth Kingdom deserter. "Just the man I was looking for." The commander smirked. "Bo, we have orders from the higher-ups. Tanshu town is to be burned to the ground for offense against the Fire Nation."

Bo's eyes widened as he spoke in a whisper. "And the people?"

"Terminate them…"

----flashback----

"Be careful Bo, a Fire Duel is a very serious matter." Iroh cautioned the boy as he prepared for his meeting with fate.

"I'll be fine General, thank you." Bo struck a firebending stance and stood at one of the ends of the Agni Kai ring, throwing off his ceremonial red cloth of his shirtless torso as he waited for Yin to arrive.

An escort of several Firebending soldiers surrounded the commander as he entered the arena, also shirtless and in black pants, the traditional attire for a Fire Duel. They boy unknotted the bundle of hair on the top of their heads, letting their long hair fall down past their shoulders. Yin's evil eyes burned with rage at his disgrace as he waiting for the challenged to make the first move.

Bo struck forward with his fist, letting off a large fireball towards his opponent, which the latter easily dodged as he moved in, mere feet from Bo now. The boy kicked and released an arc of flame from his leg, which was ducked under with near effortlessness.

Yin grabbed Bo's ankle and lifted it up further from it's kicking position, letting go of it and letting Bo fall to the ground with a yelp. "This is a Fire Duel, you're supposed to, ya know, use fire!" Bo shouted as he let loose another fireball from his fist.

"I do not need to, you're but a child and I can defeat you without firebending…" Yin sighed as he sidestepped the ball of fire.

"You'll pay for underestimating me!" Bo inhaled sharply, holding his breath for a moment. A gasp from the crowd came, as Iroh knew what was coming next. Bo exhaled, releasing fire from his hot breath as he flowed all over the arena.

Yin winced as he saw the flames. "Firebreathing… perhaps I did underestimate you a bit…" He raised his hands, bringing a wall of fire up that lit the whole ring up as if it were ablaze as the two attacks collided.

Bo put his hands up, trying to keep the flames away as they licked at his clothes and skin. When the embers died down, Yin stood up against the boy, fist above his heart.

The commander's inhuman eyes stared into Bo's amber ones, leaving a mark of an eternal memory in that instant. "Bear this pain of your defeat for the rest of your life… boy." He emitted flames from around his fist, causing a large burn mark above Bo's heart as the boy went down, cough up blood and smoke as he writhed on the ring floor in pain.

Bo clasped his hands over his chest, feeling the searing burn of the fire in his heart as Yin walked away, hearing a roaring cheer from the crowd over Yin's victory and Bo's suffering. Iroh rushed to the boy, eager to help heal him but it was too late… the damage had already been done.

----end flashback----

A few years later, Iroh and Prince Zuko had suffered a similar incident, however as outraged as Fire Lord Ozai was to find that his own son wouldn't fight him, he sentenced both of them to banishment. Bo had decided to go with them, as he was still under Iroh's command, as well as because Iroh had acted like a father to him and he couldn't imagine life without him.

However, Yin was right, I do remember that day very clearly, I will for the rest of my life… and I learned another lesson as well.

Bei Bo Rong watched as Fire Nation soldiers invaded Tanshu town, attack the people and ransacking the houses.

I know my place, I will never disobey an order from someone higher up than me again…

He pushed his fist out, lighting one of the houses on fire with his firebending. The inferno quickly spread until the whole town was ablaze. The only sound he could hear above the cries of despair from the townsfolk was a single voice, he wasn't sure whether it was real or in his head, but it cried: "Yun! Yun! Where are you Sir Yun!? We have to get out of here now!" The voice of a little boy ran through the air.

I will never make that mistake again!

-----------------------------------------

"Sir, Tanshu town has been incinerated as requested." A soldier saluted Chyuu in the royal quarters of _The Chimera_.

"Good… I'm sure our superior general will be pleased that his orders were carried out. He was quite concerned when that tea-sipper joined our quest." Chyuu chuckled darkly. "But I'll tell General Yin that there's nothing to be worried about now, we have his complete and utter obedience…"

**--------------------------------------------**

**DJP: Whew, there's another chapter! This one operates similarly to The Storm, in that it's a flashback chapter where the opposite or "B" story takes up more of the time than the hero or "A" story does. I tried to make Bo's story different than Zuko's, but I know there are a lot of similarities. Hope you enjoyed, I'll try to update faster from now on!**

**On the Next Tale of the Earth:**

**Shan: Whoo! Another town, bout time we got to take a break**

**Kairi: We just started traveling again!**

**Zhang: Awww! It's so cute! Can we keep it? **

**Ran: A pet? Do we have room for it?**

**Shady Business…**

**Kairi: If that thing gets us killed I am so barbecuing it! **


	6. Shady Dealings

****

Book 1: Chapter 6:Shady Dealings

"Alright, you're so going down this time!" Zhang growled as she glared at her opponent. "You thought you beat me last time, but I'm ready for a whole new round! Time to get an ass-kicking!" She struck an earthbending stance.

Kairi sighed. "It's a rock, it doesn't have an ass, it doesn't even have ears to hear your threats!" She pointed to the boulder Zhang was trailing on, it had numerous cracks in it, but it hadn't budged an inch since the young earthbender started working on it.

"Shut up hothead! I'm trying to concentrate and be more stable than the rock so I can move it, duh!" She took a deep breath and struck her stance again, aiming a firm punch forward, instepping to the rock and sending it flying into a nearby tree, where it shattered to pieces. "Whoohoo! I did it! I finally move a rock!" The pale girl grinned broadly. "In your face ugly!"

"What did you call me!?" Kairi glared daggers at the other girl. "I was spitting out flames when you were still crapping yourself! When you get to be half as good at bending as me, then we'll talk!"

"Bravo! Very good Zhang!" Ran applauded his student and grinned broadly. "You've taken your first step into a much larger world, now you can start developing your own techniques based on moving earth." He smirked. and jumped off his perch on a nearby stone. "This calls for a celebration!"

"Whoohoo! Let's get wasted!" Shan called out from the nearby stream, where he was giving Mako a bath. "By the way Ran, when was the last time you cleaned this guy, he's got dirt everywhere!"

"He's a Badgermole, duh!" The young earthbender shouted back and looked to his two female associates. "So, how should we celebrate?"

Kairi sighed and flipped her hair out of her face, looking at the map in her hands. "We're somewhere in the central Earth Kingdom, where I have no clue…Not sure where we can get directions either."

"Don't worry!" Ran grinned goofily and pointed to himself. "I'm a master of direction and stealth!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"You have no idea where we are, do you?"

"Not a one…" Ran scratched his head from atop Mako's saddle.

"JUST FRICKEN GREAT!" Kairi nearly bit his head off. "Way to go, Mr. 'master of direction and stealth'!"

"Hey look! We must be either really lost, or really lucky, because I see a town over there!" Zhang pointed to a grouping of buildings just barely visible on the horizon.

"Awesome! Time for some partying!" Shan grinned broadly and pushed Ran out of the driver's seat, knocking at Mako's reigns to go full speed ahead towards the town.

---------------------------------------------

"This is so good!" Zhang grinned broadly and shoved another piece of food in her mouth. "So much better than that nasty burnt fish Shan cooks!" She shouted with her mouth open, spewing pieces onto her friends.

"Say it, don't spray it girly…" Kairi wiped herself off in disgust. "We're lucky we found this place, we needed supplies anyway…" She glared at the earthbender with no sense of direction.

Ran took another bite out of his meal and looked around at the restaurant they were in, it looked nice enough, a fairly pretty looking tea house with a few light refreshments for sale. They were lucky that Kairi managed to 'borrow' some more money from some nice people outside, but then again you'd be surprised how nice people will be when they're threatened to be char-broiled. "It's not my fault we almost didn't get here…" He said with his mouth half-full.

"IT WAS TOTALLY YOUR FAULT!!" The other three snapped at him, a grunt could even be heard from the Badgermole outside.

"Hehehe, lively bunch aren't you?" A man in nice-looking clothes with a long ponytail walked up and sat with them at their table.

"Who are you old man?" Ran quirked an eyebrow, a chopstick hanging out of his mouth.

"How many times have I told you not to talk with your mouth full!" Kairi gave him a hard bonk on the head. "Sorry sir, what were you saying?" She asked in a politer than usual tone, most likely trying to con some money out of him because of his successful appearance.

"I am Mao, I am but a simple merchant, a tradesman." The man smirked and bowed softly in his chair. "You four seem to have some wealth to be here, and I was wondering if you would like to sample my wares?"

The four teenagers stared at him and sweatdropped. "So you're peddling crap?" They said in unison.

Mao waved his hands in front of him, chuckling awkwardly. "I wouldn't call it that, but yes, I am trying to sell you something, business isn't very good in this town and my shop mainly relies on travelers to support it."

"Alright, I suppose it can't hurt to take a look…" Ran stood up. "Where's your crap?"

"Merchandise!" Mao insisted, leading the four outside to a cart that had trinkets, animals, scrolls and various other things on it.

"Be careful…" Kairi whispered to the others. "We don't have much money left after that meal, so we have to haggle seriously if we need anything."

"Kya! It's so cute!" Zhang quickly darted over to the cage of an animal that had the head and color of a koala, but the body, shape, and mannerisms of an otter.

"Hm, a Koalaotter, didn't think those things existed outside the North Pole…" Shan rubbed his chin and observed, "It must be very adaptable to be able to live in such a dry and hot climate comparitively."

"Aye." A muscular man with an eyepatch, presumably Mao's assistant, nodded and walked over to Shan. "That be one of the most adaptable Koalaotters out there, he can survive in nearly any climate, unlike the others that have to live in frozen places. And because of that and its rarity, it's very expensive."

"We'll take it!" Zhang shouted happily, obviously not hearing a word the eyepatched man said, simply fawning over the adorable bear-sea mammal.

"I don't know…" Ran rubbed his chin. "A pet? Do we have room for it?"

"Pwease Ran?" Zhang gave the young earthbending teacher a pathetic look that could only be matched by the Koalaotter itself. "Think of it as my advancement present! I'll never ask you for anything else again!"

Ran blinked for a moment and blushed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Well, alright, I suppose…"

"-cough-spineless!-cough-"

"-cough-pushover!-cough-"

Ran shot Kairi and Shan dirty looks and then sighed, turning back to Mao and his assistant. "How much is it?"

"Five-hundred gold pieces." The merchant said calmly.

"FIVE-HUNDRED!?" Zhang and Kairi's jaws nearly dropped. "Where do you get off charging that much for a lousy pet!" The firebender demanded, her attitude towards the man suddenly changing.

"Like we said, it's a rarity." Mao shrugged. "I'm sorry, but I can't get it any lower than that or I'm losing money…"

"Screw that! We're leaving!" Kairi started dragging Zhang away from the adorable creature, beckoning the others to follow. "See ya later, crap-peddler!"

-------------------------------------------

Later that night, the four made camp just outside the town, Kairi firebended a campfire and started poking it with a stick. "Tomorrow we'll set off again, we need to keep getting closer to the treasure of the ancient earth, I'm sure Chyuu and his boys are already closer than we are…"

"Aww, darn, I was kind of happy to finally find another town, we've been traveling for a couple of weeks now…" Shan sighed sadly.

"This isn't a vacation! We're on a mission!" The firebender snapped as the fire flared up with her temper, calming down as the other three cowered in fear and Mako let out a snort from the other side of camp. "We just started going again, we can't afford to keep stopping like this…"

"True, the Fire Nation can't get ahold of that treasure or else the war is just about over…" Ran sighed and stared into the fire. "We should get some rest so we can get an early start tomorrow…"

Kairi looked over to Zhang, who had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since they had left the town. "You alright girly?" She raised an eyebrow to the girl sitting away from the fire.

"Yeah! Just fine!" Zhang responded in a panic, nearly jumping out of her skin at the sound of someone calling her. "Not hiding anything or anything like that…" She turned around, an obvious lump in her shirt that seemed out of place.

"Don't tell me…" Shan facepalmed and shook his head.

"What do you have under you shirt….?" Kairi sighed and glared at her.

"HOW RUDE!" Ran exclaimed, nothing registering wrong in his thick head. "What a woman has under her shirt is her own business! I didn't think you swung that way Kairi!"

The firebender growled and nailed him in the head with a canteen, turning her attention back to Zhang. "You stole that koalaotter, didn't you?"

"I did not steal him! I only unlocked the cage and Hian followed me back here!" Zhang stuck her tongue out as the adorable creature poked its head out of her collar.

"Hian?" Kairi and Ran raised their eyebrows and looked at each other.

Shan sighed. "She's named it, good luck getting her to give it up now…" He shook his head.

"Stop them! They stole our crap… I mean merchandise!" Mao's voice called out from inside the town as a group of seedy looking men ran up to them, weapons in hand as 'Hian' hid behind Zhang's leg, shivering slightly.

"Shit, they already found us?" Shan stood up and took a defensive stance.

Kairi glared at the otter intently. "If that thing gets us killed, I am so barbecuing it!"

"Awright! Time for some practice!" Ran and Zhang both gave goofy grins as the struck earthbending stances.

"How can we fight these guys when Zhang just stole their stuff?" Kairi wondered aloud and came to face their attackers.

Mao growled as he stared at the four teens, badgermole, and an otter. "How dare you steal out merchandise! We got that straight from the North Pole!"

Shan's eyes widened. "Guys! He's lying! They stole it!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ran tilted his head to his friend.

"The poaching and selling of Koalaotters is illegal in the North Pole, so either they stole it from somewhere else, or they're poachers, either way, they're bad guys!" Shan growled and pointed at Mao.

"How do you know all this?"

"It's called a book, maybe you should read one sometime!"

"Oh well, that's a good enough excuse for me to fight." Ran cracked his knuckles and grinned, tossing a large rock into the crowd with earthbending, forgetting his Dadao on Mako's back.

The pirates charged at them with spears and swords, slashing and stabbing at the rouges. "Shit!" Zhang exclaimed as a small cut appeared on her face from one of the pirate's swords. "You bastard!" She stomped and raised a pillar of rock to hit right between the man's legs, earning a high-pitched scream from her attacker, he wasn't dead, but was going to be walking funny for a long time and wouldn't be having any children.

"Hmph, looks like girly can take care of herself now…" Kairi smirked as she dodged another spear point and kicked fire at several of the men, causing them to fall backwards with burn marks across their bodies.

"This is fun!" Ran shouted, a stupid smile on his face as he broke through a man's spear with a strong punch and sent a rock into his gut, tossing him a few feet away and to the ground.

"Get them! Take back that stupid rodent, and maybe we can take the Badgermole as our prize!" Mao shouted as another wave of men charged forward towards Mako, only to be shot back, impaled, or scratched by a column of spiked rocks that the badgermole shot out of the ground with a kick.

Shan and Hian stood back on the sidelines. "Whoo! Go team!" Shan waved towards his friends.

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE!" The other three snapped at him as the continued fighting although they were clearly winning against the numerous pirates.

"Kill them…" Mao whispered to the man with the eyepatch, watching as he strapped two seashell-shaped clawed gloves to his hands The man rushed to Zhang and Hian, gloves raised.

"Die!" He stabbed the glove straight for Zhang, who was taken by surprise at the attack, closing her eyes and waiting for the pain to hit her.

SHINK!

The sound of metal puncturing flesh hit her ears, and the sound of blood pouring on the ground also came to her, but pain never racked her body. She opened her eyes to see Kairi standing over her and facing her, all eight of the eyepatched man's seashell claw glove claws stuck into her back and dripping crimson.

"Stupid.. girly…" Kairi coughed up blood and fell over, spilling her blood into the dirt.

"KAIRI!" Shan, Ran, and Zhang shouted at once, turning from their fights to watch their comrade fall. "You bastard!" Ran punched another man hard in the gut and sent another one flying with a rock pillar, running to his friend's side.

"Damnit… you protected me.. even after I got a handle on earthbending, I couldn't protect myself, I'm tired of people getting hurt saving my ass!" Zhang roared, glaring at the eyepatched man and kicking a rock into his direction.

The man held his arms out and broke the rock with his claws, but wasn't fast enough to stop the kick to the gut the black-haired girl had aimed for him. The burly man spat out blood and staggered back, holding his stomach, surprised at the girl's newfound strength.

Zhang stomped twice and raised two rocks out of the ground, twisting them in circles, midair around her body before kicking them, adding centrifugal force to the force of her bending, landing one to the man's already wounded stomach, and one to his forehead. Zhang finished the attack off by using the earth to jump higher into the air than normal, and land a punch to the man's severely damaged gut, causing blood to ooze from his stomach and forehead, his claw-gloved hands laid limp at his side. He was either dead, or wished he was. "Never… ever… ever! Hurt one of my friends again!" She panted, worn out from the all-out attack.

Ran grinned at his student's progress as he finished off the remaining lackeys, leaving Mao standing alone amidst a field of corpses and unconscious bodies. "Looks like the game's over, crap-peddler, care to give up?"

Mao gave a scared look, but held a knife behind his back, ready to strike as soon as someone let their guard down. He got to Ran's feet and bowed, begging. "Please! I'll let you keep the otter, but please show mercy and please don't tell anyone about our crimes! The war made us resort to common thievery, I beg you to find it in your heart to forgive me!"

Ran, Shan, and Zhang looked on the pathetic sighed and sighed. "Just go…" The earthbending boy extended his hand to the man. "Guess we can't blame you, you were just trying to survive…"

"Bad mistake boy, now die!" Mao thought as he brought the knife out from behind his back, ready to stab it into Ran's stomach as he suddenly felt a great pain in his stomach and arms. He looked down to see Hian the otter, with the eyepatched man's seashell clawed-gloves attached to his own small hands. They dripped blood as several red lines appeared and tore through Mao's clothing and skin. The pirate shopkeeper thief fell over, drenched in his own blood and defeated by a mere otter. 

Hian tapped his clawed gloves together, the eight claws clanging against one another as the seashell hand guards clashed. "Cha!" The otter let out a battlecry, a smile crossing his furry face.

"Good boy Hian!" Zhang smirked, holding up a weary thumbs-up.

"Cha!" The otter slid on its belly over to Mao's now deserted cart, pulling out a pair of sunglasses and whipping them onto his own eyes. "Cha! Cha!" He held out a thumbs-up and but the seashell claws on his back by their straps.

Ran sweatdropped as he stared at the now sunglassed otter."Wow, an otter who knows how to fight and apparently has a sense of style… who knew the world had such odd things…"

-----------------------------------------------------

Later, as Ran, Shan, Hian, and Zhang all loaded the wounded Kairi onto Mako and prepared to leave, Shan began to look over the girl's injuries and begin dressing them until they could find some medicinal herbs.

Ran looked to the claw-wielding, sunglass-wearing otter and raised an eyebrow. "Why are we brining him with us again?"

"Cuz he's so cyute!" Zhang hugged the otter, who gave a furry affectionate hug back. "And he knows how to fight, who knows? He could be useful in our quest." She chuckled.

Shan sighed as he finished dressing Kairi's wounds, shaking his head. "It was a lucky shot, there's no real damage, but she'll need to rest for a while and won't be able to fight for a few days…"

"Why did she take that for me? She could've easily just killed the guy with some firebending but instead she stepped in front of me to take the hit, why?" Zhang's eyes became sad as she watched her friend rest on the moving Badgermole.

Ran pulled at the reigns, his own eyes becoming sad and serious. "Sometimes, when you really care about something, it becomes instinctual to protect it, you don't even realize you're doing it, but you throw your own life on the line to protect someone important to you, she probably didn't even think about it before stepping in…"

Kairi opened her eyes slightly, seeing that the others were all turned away, and stared up at the night sky, slowly reflecting. She mouthed the words to herself. "Something important to you… What's happened to me?"

----------------------------------------------------------------

DJP: Alright, there's another update after a long time! Hope you guys like, sorry I haven't been updating, but my inspiration has been elsewhere lately, hopefully I'll be able to update this fic more often now! Also, sorry if the action was a bit bleh in this chap, but I hope the new furry traveling companion made a cool first appearance, figured Ran and the gang needed a Momo-like critter too! Hope it was good, sorry if not, please review either way!

Next time on tales of the earth:

Ran: We should travel slowly, with Kairi injured like this our strength is practically cut in half…

???: Maybe I can help… I am pretty good at… relieving stress –wink-

Zhang: What the hell's wrong with you guys!?

???: They're under my spell…

Zhang: Lotus Barrage!

Dances with Dragons

???: Welcome… Burning Stone…


	7. Dances with Dragons

**This chapter is dedicated to my good friend FireThief, who convinced me to continue with this story, as well as all the other fans out there.**

**Book 1: Chapter 7: Dances with Dragons**

Ran looked around, trying to find where he was, but only saw darkness. "Shan? Kairi? Zhang? Mako? Hian?" He called to his friends, but only his echo sounded through the empty black space. He wasn't sure, but he could swear he was… floating?

"Welcome… Burning Stone…" A low growling voice called out to him. Before he knew it, Ran was encircled by two serpentine dragons, one red and one blue. The Red one spoke: "I am Ran, and this is Shao."

"Ran and Shao…" He looked to the speaking dragon. "Are we related or something? Cause I didn't imagine any of my ancestors being… ya know… talking dragons!"

"We are… connected in a manner of speaking. We dragons are able to send our spirits out to communicate to those whom we are connected to, as is the former avatar Roku's guardian, Fang. We are only able to speak to you in spirit to convey a special message during the next few days."

"Why only then?" Ran blinked, looking around, still clearly unnerved to be surrounded by two giant dragons.

"We may only speak during the days approaching the Winter Solstice, which is tomorrow. At sunset tomorrow, we will once again lose our voices. Our time is short now, you must make it to the spirit altar in the center of the Earth Kingdom before the end of the Solstice. There we will be able to tell you of the great danger that awaits you and your friends, and your great destiny…"

"Why can't you just tell me now? Why are you being all mysterious and dramatic?"

Shao finally spoke. "We can't talk long, we need the combined power of the Solstice and the spirit altar to convey our message, please meet us there and all will be explained. Farewell and lightning speed… Burning Stone."

--

Ran shot awake and looked around, it was still dark out, but he could see things around him thanks to the dim light of the dying embers of their campfire the night before. They had finally passed through the southern plains of the Earth Kingdom and entered part of the central forest more towards the middle of the continent. Shan and Zhang were in their sleeping bags around him. Hian was cuddled up with Zhang in her bag while the injured Kairi rested atop Mako's saddle. They had planned that since she couldn't move or bend very well, it would be best for her to sleep with Mako to protect her.

"Ugh… what was with that dream?" Ran held his head. "I've really gotta stop trying to eat mushrooms and moss as a midnight snack." He watched the orange sun poking over the trees. "But dream or not… it's true, the Winter Solstice is tomorrow. Maybe we should go to the altar just in case…"

A loud yawn snapped Ran out of his monologue as Xiao Lian sat up, scratching her head. "You really have to stop talking to yourself, people are going to think you're crazier than they already do."

Ran sighed and shook his head. "Just a bad dream… and there's something I want to check out on the way to the North Pole, but we can't move too fast. With Kairi out, our strength is nearly cut in half, so we should move more cautiously than usual." He thought for a moment. "Well… what do you say we get in some training while we wait for the others to wake up?"

"Hell yeah! You're going down this time!" The earthbending student raised her fist excitedly.

--

While the other two were off training, Shan was left to look after Kairi, and feed Hian and Mako. "Man, I'm an artist, not a pet care specialist…" He looked up as the sun hang high in the sky. "At least it's a nice day…" he picked some fruits and vegetation for the otter and badgermole to eat and threw it onto a pile before Mako.

The badgermole quickly ate up the food, but Hian didn't take too kindly to it. The adorable creature walked over to Shan and slapped him in the face with one of his seashell-shaped gloves. "Cha! Cha Cha!"

"What? You don't like fruit?" The sculptor rubbed his cheek and shook his head. He watched as the otter walked over to Mako and pulled some of the special rations they got from their last town out of his saddle, stuffing them into his mouth, causing his cheeks to bulge out like a chipmunk. "Hey! We need those for an emergency… prissy otter…" He growled while Hian flipped him the bird somehow with his small fingers.

Shan was about to retort when he heard a rustling sound in the brush, he and Hian took defensive stances while Mako just rolled over and snored. Kairi moved a little in her sleep and groaned as well, but didn't move much because of her previous injury. "Who's there!?"

"Cha! Cha Cha Cha!" (Yeah! Come out ya wimp!)

The sculptor and otter both blinked when they saw someone fall out of the foliage and onto the ground. "Please… help me…" The mysterious figure collapsed at their feet.

--

"Ow… I almost had you that time and you know it…" Xiao Lian rubbed her backside as she and Ran walked back to camp after a long day of training.

"You really are getting better though Zhang." Ran smirked as he floated two small rocks in a constant circle a few inches above his hand. "A little more training and I won't have much to teach you anymore. And all this sparing with you has given me a chance to train and get better too, we'll kick the Fire Nation's asses the next time we see them."

"Yeah… whatever… at least I'm getting better at bending." The young girl sighed as they reached camp, only to see the friends they had left there weren't alone.

'Hey guys!" Shan smiled and pointed to the campfire as a young girl who looked a little older than Xiao Lian was wrapped in a blanket and huddling close to the fire for warmth. "Meet Huan Shu. She was attacked by the Fire Nation and made it all the way here, I figured since we're already taking care of Kairi, we can care for her till we find a town to drop her off in."

Ran's jaw nearly dropped as Shu stood up and the blanket fell off her. She had long brown hair tied in a ponytail and a pretty face, but from there down things got a lot more… interesting. She wore a skimpy dancer's outfit with bikini-like articles and a light red colored open skirt that displayed all of this openly. "S-She made it all the way here dressed like that?" The young earthbender gulped.

Shan and Hian nodded, both grinning broadly. "Pretty thing ain't she?"

"Dude… aren't you like, married?" Xiao Lian pointed out.

Hian nodded in agreement. "Cha…" (Yeah, so back off! She's mine!) (AN: Otters have a weird language to have all that in one word…)

Ran blushed and nodded. "Of course she can stay with us!"

Shu rushed the boy and gave him a big hug. "Oh thank you! You won't regret this!" She squeezed him tight.

"Can't… breathe…" Ran gasped, his face red from a combination of blushing and lack of oxygen.

"Does anyone else hear that? …It's like some sort of scraping sound…" Shan blinked as Hian pointed to Xiao Lian, who was glaring at Ran and Shu, her hands curled up in tight fists, gritting her teeth loudly.

"You alright?" Shan tilted his head towards the earthbending girl.

"I'm… fine…" She continued gritting her teeth, never looking away from the embracing two.

--

Later that night, the group gathered with their food around the campfire, Hian happily gulped down more of the rations he had stolen from Shan earlier that day while Mako chewed on more grasses and fruits. Kairi continued resting, barely having moved all day other than trips to the bathroom and what little she ate. At first she hadn't taken to being so inactive, but Ran and the others 'convinced' her otherwise, which was much easier due to her impairment.

Ran and Shan ate what vegetation they could find in the forest and stared ahead of them where Xiao Lian and Shu were sitting across from each other, each one glaring at the other while threatening their opponent by taking vicious bites out of their fruits.

"There's tension in the air…" Shan whispered to his friend.

"Really!? … I don't see anything." Ran looked around and into the sky.

"Not literally, dumbass!" Shan shouted but was silenced when both women shot a glare his way.

Ran remained oblivious however and reached out a hand with an apple in it to Shu, smiling warmly. "Here, take part of mine, you need your strength after being attacked and stuff."

"Idiot! Don't get involved!"

"Oh no, I couldn't." Shu waved him away in a soft and sweet tone.

"Oh no, please do…." Xiao Lian grinned evilly, still glaring at her and taking a large bite out of her own fruit.

"Okay, if you insist, thanks cutie!" Shu giggled and took Ran's apple, causing the earthbender boy to fall on his back blushing from the compliment.

Zhang then shifted her glare to her male friend. "Men are such idiots… You're a real dumbass Ran."

"That's Seifu Dumbass to you, my student." Ran wagged his finger arrogantly, causing the young woman's glare to intensify. Ran finally got the message and sunk back, hiding behind the log Shan was sitting on.

"You look like you're about to piss yourself Ran." Shan laughed softly, glad to find the scorn of the females off of him and onto Ran.

"The people of Omashu have a saying. 'When a woman is angry, the best thing to do is look really pathetic, say you're sorry, and stay the hell outta their way unless you want to be castrated."

--

Later that night, as everyone was asleep, Shu tiptoed over the male's sleeping bags to Mako's saddle, quietly climbing up without anyone hearing. She hung herself over Kairi's sleeping form. She pulled a small hand knife seemingly from nowhere and held it over her throat.

Before she had any time to do anything, a rock flew at her head and connected with the side of it, throwing her off the saddle and back to the dirt below. The sound of her yelp and the thud of her hitting the ground waking Shan, Ran, and Hian who all took a defensive position. "What the hell's going on!?" Ran whipped his head around, still half asleep.

"I knew there was something off about you." Xiao Lian smirked as she tossed another rock at Shu, this one was easily dodged by the odd dancer girl by bending straight back in an upside-down L shape.

"What the hell!?" Shan shouted, staring at the girl. "Doesn't she have a spine?"

"If she does, she's not using it at the moment." Ran muttered before looking at his student. "Why are you attacking her?"

"She was trying to kill Kairi! My guess is she's some kind of bounty hunter!" She pointed her accusation at Shu.

Shu grinned evilly and laughed out loud for a moment, looking at her surroundings, completely encircled by people ready to attack her. "That's right, I'm a bounty hunter here after that girl. I figured if I got in good with the boys then I could take her easily since reports say she was injured on her last stop into town, however I wasn't expecting you to be here." She pointed to Xiao Lian.

"Well you're finished now, we're not going to let you hurt Kairi!" Ran shouted, stomping and throwing a barrage of spikes at her, all of which were dodged by the oddly flexible dancer.

"Nice try hun, but I don't think so." Shu pulled a small bottle out of her skirt and sprayed an odd pink cloud at Shan, Ran, and Hian.

The three coughed and fell over, blushing and babbling in a love-struck haze. "What the heck is that stuff!?" The female earthbender stared at the bounty hunter.

"My special perfume, it makes any man or animal who breathes it in to instantly become unable to attack the user. I call it Male-B-Gone." She giggled teasingly and nimbly jumped clear over Xiao Lian and to Mako, spraying some of the perfume into his nose as well. The effect made the badgermole fall over twitching as , causing Kairi to fall out of his saddle and into Shu's waiting arms. "That's what makes me a great bounty hunter, using this stuff I can capture any male target. Even though that sculptor was married I got him to go ga-ga and let me stay by simply dabbing my fingers in it and touching under his nose." She laughed cruelly and put Kairi down next to her, pulling out more knives between each of her fingers and crossing her arms in a battle stance. "It doesn't work on women though, so I'll have to take you out the old fashioned way."

"Good thing too, because you're so not my type." Xiao Lian smirked and took her earthbending stance. "I have to admit something, I'm really glad you turned out to be rotten, I've wanted to beat the living shit out of you since the first time I laid eyes on you."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"I don't know, maybe it's the way you parade yourself around like that, or maybe it's the way you flirt with my friends, but something about you just urks me off!" She stomped and punched, sending a rock flying to Shu, who easily dodged it and threw three knives which embedded themselves in opponent's leg.

"Ah!" Damn, got careless…" Xiao Lian quickly pulled the knives out of her legs and was happy that she was still able to stand and walk. She ran and backed away from the dancer, hoping that if she got enough distance, Shu's aim would be worse in the dark night. "Let's see if what Ran's been teaching me is doing any good." She opened her arms and extended a narrow crevice from her feet to where Shu was.

The bounty hunter was caught off guard by this sudden move and while the hole wasn't big enough to envelop her, one of her feet got caught in the crack. She threw two more of her knives at her opponent before she had a chance to attack. "Not bad for an amateur… but you'll have to do a lot better!"

Xiao Lian stomped and raised a pillar of rock in front of her to block the knives. "Don't worry, I have lots more!" She panted lightly.

"Is that so?" The earthbender looked up to see that Shu was standing on top of her defending rock pillar, free from the crack and holding more knives than before. She launched her weapons at her opponent before she had a chance to dodge, a few grazing her shoulder and lodging themselves in her torso.

Xiao Lian yelped in pain and backed away again. "Damn… I have to rethink this, she's too fast and flexible for normal attacks, so I'll have to try something new."

"Heh, give her up girl. Why is she worth defending? She's one of the Fire Nation! The group who have declared war on and slaughtered so many of your people!"

The earthbending girl clenched her fists and glared up at Shu from her perch still on the rock pillar. "She's worth defending because, Fire Nation or not, she would do the same for me!" She shouted, tears streaming from her eyes as she remembered why Kairi was in her weakened state to begin with. She got hurt defending her, she felt responsible and she wouldn't let her get hurt while she was recuperating from protecting her.

"You're a fool." Shu slashed the air and jumped down to the ground. "You're crying over something like that? You're nothing! You're so weak you didn't even show up on my reports as a member of the group, you weren't even worth mentioning! You're worthless!" She threw a knife at Xiao Lian, shocked moments later by what she saw.

The earthbending girl continued to glare at her opponent, the knife she had thrown at her head was now between her teeth, her lip bleeding, but her face looking as determined as ever. "I'll show you who's nothing! I'll show you who's worthless!" She spat the knife out, grabbing a group of small rocks and jumping into the air.

Shu threw two knives at her, but as she descended, she began spinning at a rapid speed so that she looked like a top ready to hit the ground, two of the rocks she grabbed flew out and hit the knives, knocking them away harmlessly. "Lotus Barrage!"

The bounty hunter watched as more and more rocks emerged from the downward spinning girl at a high speed. She used her flexibility to dodge most of them, but she eventually missed, one the size of a baseball hitting her in the stomach. This caused her to double over slightly, allowing more rocks to peg her in the head and chest, letting blood flow freely down her face from the spots where the rocks connected.

The bounty hunter growled, battered but still standing, ready to throw her knives again. "Is that all you've got girl!?"

"Not quite!" Xiao Lian shouted before her spinning form collided with the ground, using earthbending and sheer force like a drill to create a fissure much larger than the first. One that enveloped Shu's body completely. The earthbender girl sat up and groaned. "Xiao dizzy…" She held her head, her eyes spinning.

She climbed out quickly and watched as Shu tried to do the same, giving a firm stomp and closing the crevice tightly, leaving Shu stuck in the ground between the two crevice sides from the shoulders down. "Ha! Beat that Miss Priss!" The earthbender pulled her eyelid and stuck her tongue out in victory.

--

"Wow! That's incredible!" Ran exclaimed, looking over Xiao Lian's handiwork. "Normally you wouldn't be able to create a gap this size with such limited training, but since you used a drill effect, it worked as a catalyst for your earthbending and making it much more effective! That ingenuity of yours can be a dangerous thing" He chuckled and looked over the knocked out Shu. "You're really something Xiao Lian." He laughed softly.

"You can stop sucking up now Ran, I'm not mad about the apple thing anymore." The student sighed and shook her head.

"Oh thank goodness." He grinned towards her. The perfume had worn off by morning and the men (and animals) had woken up fully rested and generally unharmed. Kairi had slept safely through the attempted assassination, recovering a little more and moving around a bit more than she had been. Xiao Lian had some decent cuts and wounds, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with the supplies they had with them.

"So are we just going to leave her here?" Shan asked, also looking over the dancer girl, a ticked expression on his face since he had fallen for her tricks just as easily as Ran.

"Why not? I'm sure someone will find her sooner or later, and if not, who cares? If we let her out she'll just chase after us again." The black-haired earthbender tapped her cheek in thought.

"True, but we should at least give her a fighting chance, she is out cold after all." He gave a small tap of his foot and loosened with crevice a little so that with a little squeezing and maneuvering, Shu would be able to escape when she eventually awoke.

"You're too nice for your own good sometimes, you know that?" Kairi groaned, still laying down in Mako's saddle, but awake.

"I suppose so, but we've wasted enough time here, let's quit draggin our feet…" he thought for a moment. "Draggin… Dragon…" He tapped his cheek. "Guys, we have a little detour before the North Pole, it shouldn't take long, alright?" He knew that whether it was a dream or not, he had to check out that spirit altar.

"You're the one who said we should get a move on…" Xiao Lian commented, crossing her arms and looking at him with a raised brow.

"It won't take more than a day, I promise." Ran nodded. "Tomorrows a special day and I have to do something, okay?"

"… Fine, as long as it's on the way." Shan continued to pack up camp and loaded it all onto Mako's saddle.

"Thanks guys!" Ran stomped and left an impression on the earth as he propelled himself into the air with earthbending as if with a slingshot and landed straight in the driver's seat of the badgermole's reigns.

The others loaded up into the saddle and the group took off, once again speeding through the forest. "Don't worry Ran and Shao, I'll hear you out this once…" Ran whispered to himself.

"Hey, girlie." Kairi whispered to Xiao Lian, beckoning her to where her laying position in the corner of the saddle was.

"What's up Kairi?" The earthbending student came closer and leaned in to hear the Fire Nation woman.

"Thanks…" Kairi whispered so quietly that even Xiao Lian could barely hear her. She clearly wasn't used to this kind of thing. "For everything… what you did… and what you said back there…"

"Heh, so you heard that after all eh?" The girl gave a V-sign and grinned broadly. "No problem, now we're even!"

--

Commander Chyuu smirked as he went through the planning room of _The Chimera_, looking over various Fire Nation plans and tactics as he did.

Bo walked into the iron-clad room, looking around unimpressed with the Commander's maps and plans. "I thought I told you not to disturb me unless we caught up with that Earth Kingdom boy and the testy Fire Nation traitor." He grumbled crankily.

Chyuu smiled smugly while looking at his partner. "Things are going just as planned, we're getting closer to the North Pole by the day, we should be able to meet General Iroh's ship there. However, I thought you might be interested in this." he handed him a tattered map with a red dot on it in the center of the Earth Kingdom continent.

"This is an old map used by a religious cult that worships the spirit realm, I'm sure General Iroh has told you of his own trip there and of how he fears the spirits. Today is the Winter Solstice, one the days where the spirit world collides with our world, meaning that spirits are much closer than normal."

"What does this have to do with me?" Bo sighed, looking very annoyed to have been called out of meditation.

"This map marks a spirit altar that is generally unknown to even those in the Earth Kingdom. If my hunch is right, spirits are trying to contact and aide our enemies, and if this is true, we know exactly where they'll be tomorrow to have a little chat. Perhaps we should meet them there and give them our own talking to…"

**--**

**Whoo! I've decided to try updating this for a bit since One Truth is giving me problems. I'll try to update both as soon as possible. On to the preview!**

**Next time on Tale of the Earth:**

**Kairi: I'm still hurt but I can get up and walk around at least.**

**Bo: So we meet again…**

**Zhang: Holy…! That thing's huge!**

**The Spirit Altar**

**Ran (Dragon): There is more danger in this situation than you can possibly imagine…**


End file.
